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Image copyright AP Image caption President Poroshenko said about 2,500 troops withdrew from Debaltseve on Wednesday
Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin has denounced Ukraine's call for the deployment of UN peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine as a destructive move.
The Ukrainian president's call "raises suspicions that he wants to destroy the Minsk accords", Mr Churkin said.
The Minsk ceasefire deal was reached a week ago but fighting round the strategic town of Debaltseve saw the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops there.
Shelling significantly increased in the rebel-held city of Donetsk on Thursday.
And Ukrainian officials reported mortar attacks by separatists on the coastal town of Shirokyne, near Mariupol.
'Violation'
Mr Churkin accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of seeking a new scheme instead of doing what he had signed up to.
"If one proposes new schemes right away, the question arises whether [the accords] will be respected", he said.
The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic described the call for peacekeepers as a violation of the Minsk accords.
The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, the four parties to the Minsk accords, held further talks over the phone on Thursday.
The French presidency said the ceasefire breaches were denounced and the leaders called for "the implementation of the full package of measures agreed in Minsk" including a full ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons and the release of prisoners.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Poroshenko met troops who withdrew from Debaltseve
Mr Poroshenko called for UN-mandated peacekeepers to enforce the ceasefire after fighting continued following the rebel advance on Debaltseve.
A police mission by the European Union would be the best format for a peacekeeping operation, Mr Poroshenko said on his website.
It would help guarantee security "in a situation where the promise of peace is not being kept", he told an emergency meeting of Ukraine's national security and defence council.
Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent
Could a peacekeeping force help to secure the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine?
Well for a start there would need to be a functioning ceasefire; nobody is going to send troops into an active war zone. Just getting agreement at the UN for such a force might be an insurmountable diplomatic hurdle.
Russia - with a key veto power on the Security Council - is not just an interested bystander. Despite its denials, it is seen by Ukraine and the West as an active participant in the conflict.
An effective peacekeeping force paradoxically might be in nobody's interests. Peacekeepers tend to fix battle lines in place. In Ukraine both sides probably have further ambitions on the ground. The Russian-backed separatists may well want to advance further and the Ukrainian government's forces certainly aspire to take back territory that they have lost.
Many experts fear there is a lot more fighting to be done whether this ceasefire is implemented or not.
Nearly 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers withdrew from Debaltseve on Wednesday.
Ukraine's army said 82 soldiers were still missing on Thursday. Rebels claim to have captured hundreds.
Earlier a senior Ukrainian military official said 22 Ukrainian soldiers had died in Debaltseve over the past three days. Rebel claims of a much higher figure have been dismissed by the government.
Under threat
The ceasefire, which officially came into effect on Sunday, has reportedly seen some heavy weaponry withdrawn by both sides.
However, the BBC's Ian Pannell in Donetsk reported a significant increase in shelling on Thursday, with artillery fire shaking buildings in the city centre.
Meanwhile Ukrainian military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh said rebels had attacked the town of Shirokyne with tanks and weaponry.
After the fall of Debaltseve the peace agreement appears to be under serious threat, our correspondent says.
Earlier rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin said Debaltseve was now "completely under the control" of the separatists, with just "scattered" pockets of resistance that were being "neutralised".
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the rebels' offensive had put the wider peace agreement at risk.
The White House said both the rebels and Russia had failed to live up to the terms of the Minsk agreement.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the rebels' actions in Debaltseve had not violated the ceasefire because it was a rebel-held city at the time of the agreement.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage of Debaltseve captured by a drone showed evidence of shelling
Most of the city's 25,000 population has been evacuated but about 5,000 civilians are still believed to be in the town.
Fighting began in eastern Ukraine in April, a month after Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula.
The UN says more than 5,600 people have been killed, but there are fears the actual death toll could be much higher.
Ukraine's pro-Western government says Russia is supporting the separatists with troops and weapons, but the Kremlin has consistently denied this.
Minsk agreement: Key points
Ceasefire from 00:01 on 15 February (22:01 GMT 14 February)
Heavy weapons to be withdrawn, beginning on 16 February and completed in two weeks - beyond a buffer zone behind the current front line for Ukrainian forces and behind the September front line for separatist forces
All prisoners to be released; amnesty for those involved in fighting
Withdrawal of all foreign troops and weapons from Ukrainian territory. Disarmament of all illegal groups
Ukraine to allow resumption of normal life in rebel areas, by lifting restrictions
Constitutional reform to enable decentralisation for rebel regions by the end of 2015
Ukraine to control border with Russia if conditions met by the end of 2015
Do you live in eastern Ukraine or have friends and family in the region? What do you think about the recent developments? You can email your experiences to [email protected]
Please include a contact number if you wish to be contacted by a BBC journalist. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Poroshenko met with troops who withdrew from Debaltseve
The Ukrainian president says his forces are making an "organised" withdrawal from the embattled town of Debaltseve.
Petro Poroshenko said 80% of Ukraine's troops left on Wednesday morning after several days of fierce fighting.
Russia said Ukrainian forces had tried to fight their way out of the town after being encircled but Mr Poroshenko insisted they were never surrounded.
The rebel advance on Debaltseve, which came in spite of the recent ceasefire agreement, has been widely condemned.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the rebels' offensive had put the wider peace agreement at risk and urged Russia to "use all its influence on the separatists to make them respect the ceasefire".
He also called on Moscow to withdraw its forces from Ukraine, saying Russian troops, artillery and air defence units were still active in the country.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the rebels' actions in Debaltseve had not violated the ceasefire because it was a rebel-held city when the peace agreement was signed last week.
He urged rebels to provide troops who surrendered with food and clothes and said he hoped the situation in the city would "not be used to find a pretext to actually undermine [the agreement]".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage of Debaltseve captured by a drone showed evidence of shelling
Eyewitnesses saw dozens of tanks and columns of weary Ukrainian troops retreating from Debaltseve on Wednesday.
Russia's state-controlled Channel One TV showed footage of what it said were rebels raising their flag on top of a high-rise building in the town.
Later rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin was quoted in Russian media as saying Debaltseve was fully under the control of separatists, although there were still "disparate groups of the enemy" in the southern part of town.
One rebel commander in the city told the BBC that conditions were dire, with no electricity and a shortage of food and water. He said rebels were sharing their rations with the remaining civilians.
'Brutal violation'
President Poroshenko said in a statement: "Debaltseve was under our control, there was no encirclement, and our troops left the area in a planned and organised manner."
He called for "a firm reaction from the world to Russia's brutal violation of the Minsk agreements, the ceasefire regime and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry".
Mr Poroshenko visited the soldiers who had left Debaltseve in the town of Artemivsk on Wednesday. Earlier, he said it would be an honour to shake hands with "Ukrainian heroes".
A senior Ukrainian military official said 22 Ukrainian soldiers had died in Debaltseve over the past three days.
Earlier, an official at a morgue in Artemivsk said the bodies of 25 Ukrainian soldiers had been brought to the facility from Debaltseve but this has not been confirmed.
Rebels have claimed that hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed in clashes around the city, but Mr Poroshenko denied this.
The government in Kiev admitted that that some soldiers were taken prisoner in Debaltseve, but gave no details on how many were seized.
At the scene: Paul Adams, BBC News, eastern Ukraine
Image copyright Reuters
All Wednesday, the road out of Debaltseve into government-held territory thundered to the sound of retreating armour - tanks and troop carriers full of exhausted, sometimes defiant soldiers.
In a bus by the side of the road, I found one Yuri slumped on his seat, across the aisle from a sleeping colleague.
He said the situation had become increasingly dire and individual units had taken their own decisions to leave. They were running out of ammunition and in danger of being surrounded, he told me.
He blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for deceiving everyone about the ceasefire. We know him well by now, he said. When he says something is guaranteed, that means there's some kind of trap coming up.
In nearby fields, mortars and multiple rocket launchers fired back at the rebels - providing cover for those still trying to leave Debaltseve.
President Poroshenko says the withdrawal was planned and organised, but on the ground it looked like a hasty retreat in the face of overwhelming odds.
The withdrawal came after Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine's troops in Debaltseve to surrender.
Mr Putin is due to speak by telephone later on Wednesday to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Mr Poroshenko, according to the French government.
Spokesman Stephane Le Foll insisted the agreement announced last week by the four leaders to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine was not dead, and that progress had been made.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Ukrainian troops appeared weary and dirty as they withdrew from the besieged city
Image copyright EPA Image caption Some 7,000 civilians are said to have been trapped in the Debaltseve area during recent fighting
International observers monitoring the truce have been unable to enter Debaltseve.
The city has become a key prize for rebels and government forces, as it sits on a strategic railway line linking the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Most of its 25,000 population has been evacuated but about 7,000 civilians are still believed trapped by the fighting.
The ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday, has been broadly observed elsewhere and some rebel heavy weaponry was said to have been withdrawn.
The UN says more than 5,600 people have been killed in the conflict, but there are fears the actual death toll could be much higher.
Fighting began in eastern Ukraine in April, a month after Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula.
Ukraine's pro-Western government says Russia is supporting the separatists with troops and weapons, but the Kremlin has consistently denied this.
Minsk agreement: Key points ||||| Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called for an international peacekeeping mission for his country after ordering several thousand of his troops out of the strategic eastern Ukrainian town of Debaltseve, which has been taken over by Russia-backed separatists.
Poroshenko's office reported late Wednesday that a meeting of the country's National Defense and Security Council chaired by the Ukrainian president had come to a decision that the United Nations should be asked to send "a peacekeeping mission, which will act in accordance with the mandate of the U.N. Security Council."
The move came just hours after thousands of Ukrainian troops fled Debaltseve, a strategic rail hub that links the separatist strongholds of Luhansk and Donetsk.
The rebels reportedly captured hundreds of government troops and surrounded those it did not take prisoner, cutting off their food and water supplies.
White House comments
The White House said Wednesday that it is "crystal clear" that the separatists in eastern Ukraine and Russia are not living up to the cease-fire agreement negotiated last week in Minsk, Belarus, and warned of possible costs.
“We believe that it is important for all sides to live up to [the Minsk] agreement. It is also crystal clear that Russia-backed separatists and Russia themselves have not lived up to their commitments that they made in the context of [the Minsk] negotiations,” spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
Earnest added that the separatists and Moscow may incur “greater costs” and “should be mindful of that as they consider their next steps.”
He said that Washington continues to believe that “the way the situation can be revolved is around the negotiating table."
Map of Debaltseve, Ukraine x Map of Debaltseve, Ukraine
Putin gloats
Tuesday in Hungary, Russian President Vladimir Putin took a more philosophical view of Kyiv's losing control over Debaltseve and said the cease-fire negotiated last week must be implemented.
"Of course, it is always bad to lose. Of course, it is always painful to lose, especially if you lose to yesterday's miners and tractor mechanics," Putin said, referring to rebel fighters Kyiv and many Western goverments claim are supported by Moscow with manpower and weapons. "But life is life, and it will definitely go on.... We should resolve the main task -- save lives of lives of the people who are there now, to insure that they would return to their families, and fulfill the whole plan agreed on in Minsk,'' said Putin.
Germany condemned on Wednesday the pro-Russian separatists' offensive at Debaltseve, calling it a clear violation of a cease-fire agreed to last week, but said it was too early to call the broader Minsk peace deal dead.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said Europe stood ready to introduce new sanctions against Russia.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian servicemen in the town of Artemivsk, Ukraine, Feb. 18, 2015. x Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian servicemen in the town of Artemivsk, Ukraine, Feb. 18, 2015.
EU, NATO reaction
Also stepping up Western criticism of the rebel offensive on Debaltseve, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in Brussels, "The actions by the Russia-backed separatists in Debaltseve are a clear violation of the cease-fire.
“The EU stands ready to take appropriate action in case the fighting and other negative developments in violation of the Minsk agreements continue,” she said, making an apparent threat of further economic sanctions on Moscow.
Voicing his concerns about fighting at Debaltseve, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the refusal of pro-Russian separatists to respect the cease-fire threatened the Minsk accord.
“The refusal of the separatists to respect the cease-fire threatens the agreement, as does their denial of access to the area for the OSCE monitors,” Stoltenberg told reporters in the Latvian capital where he was attending a meeting of European Union defense ministers.
He also said Russian forces, artillery and air defense units were still active in Ukraine.
Watch video report from VOA's Zlatica Hoke:
Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by Russia that supports the Minsk cease-fire deal, while calling for rebels to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is approaching the first anniversary on February 20 of the Maidan uprising, when months of anti-government protests in Kyiv turned violent, with security forces opening fire on protesters, killing over a hundred of them. The escalation led Ukraine's Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych to flee Kyiv for Russia.
Some material for this report came from Reuters, AP and AFP. | – In an unraveling ceasefire with Russia-backed separatists, Ukraine lost the city of Debaltseve yesterday; the BBC also reports that shelling picked up in the rebel-held city of Donetsk, and that separatists have been conducting mortar attacks in the town of Shirokyne. So it's perhaps not surprising that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked yesterday for the UN to step in and send peacekeepers to the eastern part of the country, as per the Washington Post. But Russia isn't having any of that, telling its adversary to keep UN peacekeepers out or risk violating the Minsk deal reached last week, the BBC reports. Poroshenko's call for help "raises suspicions that he wants to destroy the Minsk accords," says Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador, per the BBC. "If one proposes new schemes right away, the question arises whether [the accords] will be respected." Poroshenko today called Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merken, and French President Francois Hollande—the parties who drafted the ceasefire—and implored them not to act like "what happened in Debaltseve" met ceasefire mandates, the Post reports. The Russian foreign minister says the taking of the city does adhere to the rules, because Debaltseve was held by rebels before the deal, the BBC notes. One analyst for the BBC isn't even sure a peacekeeping mission would work, saying that "nobody is going to send troops into an active war zone," and that Russia and Ukraine will both dig their heels in to take (or take back) what they think is theirs. Still, the White House seems to know where it stands: "It is … crystal clear that Russia-backed separatists and Russia themselves have not lived up to their commitments that they made," press secretary Josh Earnest said yesterday, per Voice of America. Hollande's office issued a statement saying a "new push" was under way to enforce the ceasefire, the Post notes. |
Mothers are squaring off and sounding off over the cancellation of their kids' field trip to see Santa Claus. A South Bay school may see a mass student walkout on Friday if the controversy is not resolved.The Santa storm started brewing in San Jose's Cambrian School District after one parent complained about the long-standing tradition. An apparent war over Christmas has taken over the local elementary school and the battle lines are being drawn.Parents are pitted against each other at Sartorette Elementary School. Students in the three kindergarten classes have taken a field trip to Big E Cafe every December over the past several years to drink hot chocolate and visit Santa.This year the field trip was cancelled after a mother named Talia, who did not want to use her last name, went to the principal and school board over her concerns the Christmas tradition was not inclusive.In a letter to other parents, Talia said she did not like the idea of her 5-year-old feeling left out of an assignment, being that she is the only Jewish student in the class."The field trip was tied to two writing workshops that were supposed to be spent writing to Santa," she said. "There was also a reindeer party and other Christmas related activities. There was nothing done for the Diwali festival. We have two Hindu girls in our class. There was nothing done for Ramadan. We have a Muslim boy in our class."Talia says she was satisfied when the principal told her the Dear Santa letters would be changed to thank you letters to the owner of the coffee shop and arrangements would be made for Santa to be at the Big E cafe after hours. But eventually the whole field trip was cancelled.Talia has other parents among her supporters."I think in the world of intolerance that we live in anything we can do to promote tolerance and understanding is gonna be a benefit to everybody," said parent Bao Nguyen.Many parents say Talia's complaints and the school board's actions are actually intolerant of Christmas.Vanessa House volunteers every day in her son's kindergarten class. She says they do acknowledge and teach about other religions and cultures in her class by doing similar lessons in December on Diwali, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.Other parents say the whole point of the field trip has been twisted about by rumors and half-truths."It is not a field trip to go see Santa because it never was," said parent Vitina Mandella. "The letter writing assignment was never a Santa writing assignment it is an assignment for the children to write letters and they can choose to write letters to Santa or a grandparent or a friend."House added, "She talks about having all diverse traditions and holidays but yet our Christmas now has been taken away, it's been removed now. So how can it be diverse if Christmas is not even you know, mentioned."Parents attended a school board meeting Thursday night and many told ABC7 News they're pulling their kids from class Friday and marching them down to the cafe with or without the school's permission in protest. ||||| SAN JOSE -- A Santa storm is brewing in San Jose.
After a field trip to visit Santa Claus by kindergarten students at Sartorette Elementary School was canceled by administrators on the heels of a complaint by one Jewish mother, things are getting ugly down on Woodford Drive.
Angry parents plan to descend on the board meeting Thursday, threatening a student walkout Friday if the Cambrian School District's board fails to reinstate the annual Santa trip. The woman who made the complaint, who identified herself only as Talia and declined to be interviewed Wednesday evening, stood by her claim that having kids write or visit Santa unfairly imposes one religion on all students. She fired off an angry letter Dec. 7 to fellow parents at the charter school, alleging she was "ambushed by a group of moms from Ms. Kay's class" who she said yelled at her for "ruining Santa for the kids."
It's difficult to say how much support Talia has among parents in her drive to end the Santa activities, which include a short walk to a nearby coffee shop Friday morning where the kids enjoy hot cocoa and sit on Santa's lap.
Talia has released emails of support from a few fellow parents, including one named Katie who wrote: "You didn't ruin Santa for anybody. If parents want their kids to see Santa, they should be doing it on their own time, not on a school field trip."
Meanwhile, her opponents have unfriended her on Facebook and accuse Talia of starting "the war on Christmas." Several parents reached by this newspaper expressed strong opposition to both Talia's position and the district's decision to support her.
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"It's very upsetting that the district would act after taking one person's opinion and not talking to the 500 other families at the school," said Melanie Scott, mother of a first-grader who took the field trip last year. "But we're not fighting this woman, in particular; we're against the school board's decision. And that's why we're doing the walkout, because they didn't give us a say."
In an email exchange with Scott, Talia wrote that "the 'Dear Santa' assignment, field trip, and reindeer party included 1 religion that does NOT represent all of the children in the class. As a result, the children who do not celebrate end up feeling left out."
Talia's emails suggest that she believes having the entire class meet with or write to Santa would be unfair to those children who may see him as a symbol of a Christian holiday they don't believe in. "I realize that you don't know how it feels, but I do because I lived it," Talia wrote to Scott. "Maybe you should ask around. Speak to the nanny of the girl from Ms. Kay's class who grew up a Jehovah's Witness, or a religious Christian who finds the secular Christmas offensive, or a Muslim. Let the classroom be the one safe place where everyone feels included."
Efforts late Wednesday to reach the district's superintendent Carrie Andrews were unsuccessful. She had previously responded to Talia's complaint, calling it "very concerning" and "quite valued." But on Tuesday, Andrews wrote an email to parents suggesting there may be a workaround coming that might defuse the situation.
"As you are aware a decision was made to cancel an upcoming kindergarten field trip," Andrews wrote. "I acknowledge we failed as District to provide adequate information as to the change in the field trip. I am working directly with the site administrator to find optimal solutions as we move forward. Cambrian School District is committed to working with staff and families to meet the needs of all of our students and their diverse values and traditions.''
Contact Patrick May at 408-920-5689 or follow him at Twitter.com/patmaymerc ||||| Concerned parents confronted the Cambrian School District in San Jose late Thursday after the superintendent canceled a decade-old tradition of writing letters to Santa and then delivering them on a school field trip to Big E's coffee shop. Peggy Bunker reports. (Published Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015)
Parents in San Jose, California, plan to pull their kindergarteners out of school Friday after the principal canceled a decade-old tradition of writing letters to Santa and delivering them on a field trip to a local coffee shop.
Parent Vanessa Howe will carry on the tradition by staging a walkout at 10 a.m. Friday, the day the field trip was scheduled to take place. She is urging anyone who wants to join to meet at the corner of Woodford Drive and Hallmark Lane. Parents will bring their children to Big E's coffee shop to visit Santa.
"We had a person come in last week to my son's class to speak about Hanukkah, and it would be like saying, 'I don't want you coming into the classroom because I don't want my son around that, or learning about that,'" Howe said.
It comes after the Jewish mother of a child at Sartorette Elementary School sent a four-page letter to the school district asking for the event to be canceled. She brought up "best practices" concerns and told administrators she is not anti-Christmas, but feels it's inappropriate that only one religion be represented in school.
Santa Field Trip Canceled in San Jose: Mom Accused of Waging 'War on Christmas'
A San Jose kindergarten class’s field trip to visit Santa was abruptly canceled this week, launching a Christmas controversy that has left a slew of hurt feelings and spurred a protest. Michelle Roberts reports. (Published Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015)
The parent, who wants to be identified only as Talia, had the support of the superintendent and the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute in Washington, D.C., which said the field trip to see Santa during public school hours was inappropriate and ill advised.
In a letter to the school board, Talia said the "Dear Santa" letters and field trip are not "inclusive of all students."
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Talia went to see Supt. Carrie Andrews, and worked out a compromise: To attend the field trip and drink hot chocolate without Santa. Parents could take their kids to see Santa on their own time. She also advocated for a more multi-cultural holiday approach, which her own kindergarten teacher readily adopted. Parents from eight cultures came to class on Thursday to teach about customs across the globe.
But the principal canceled the trip, which is upsetting other parents. Many said the biggest issue is that they were not consulted by the school board.
As Andrews pointed out to NBC Bay Area, however, the decision wasn't the school board's to make. Andrews acknowledged a "communication breakdown on a personnel level" was at the root of it.
"(School officials) preemptively made a decision without getting further input beyond one person it appears, so I'm here to hear what they have to say for themselves," parent Mitch Williams said late Thursday.
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Still, other parents ended up siding with Talia.
Elizabeth Snowden, who is Christian, never realized the tradition might cause people of other faiths to feel left out. Snowden said she actually felt jealous of the multicultural party held in Talia's daughter's class, and was thinking of bringing her own 5-year-old to that. "I think kids in her class are getting a much better holiday party," she said.
NBC Bay Area's Lisa Fernandez contributed to this report. ||||| SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) — Parents of San Jose school kids confronted a school board Thursday night after a decision to cancel a field trip to see Santa Claus followed a complaint by a Jewish mother who objected to the school-sponsored outing.
The visit to Santa, along with a ‘Dear Santa’ assignment, was a decade-long tradition at Sartorette Elementary School, part of San Jose’s Cambrian School District.
Last week, the Sartorette staff informed parents the school would suspend the outing to see Santa at a local coffee shop after a Jewish mother, who identified herself only as Talia, complained to the school board that the district was celebrating one religion over others.
“We need to teach about all the holidays,” said Talia. ”We live in a global society.”
Talia said as a result of her complaint and the decision by the school board, other parents began to bully her.
“I had some parents that called me a communist, that said that I didn’t want any holidays in the school.”
Some parents are blaming Talia for ruining Christmas. “It’s really scary how one parent can go and voice her opinion and then everything gets shut down,” said parent Vanessa Howes.
“I think that’s it’s really sad that the school district didn’t ask for other opinions,” said parent Melanie Scott.
Cambrian School District Superintendent Carrie Andrews told reporters outside Thursday night’s school board meeting that what began as a tradition 10 years ago is not necessarily the right thing to do today. “The bigger conversation that needs to be had is really looking at the diversity of our beliefs and our customs and making sure we instill that, and that’s what public schools need to be doing.”
Talia said she is not ruining Christmas for the kids in her child’s school. “No, Santa will be there. I’m not going around to anybody’s homes asking them not to celebrate Christmas. I’m not going to go to anyone’s church or private school, but in a public school we have to design curriculum to fit everybody.”
Parents voiced their opinions to the school board Thursday night, but the board was unable to take any action on the issue because it was not on the agenda. Some parents vowed before the meeting to walk out of school in protest Friday if the decision wasn’t reversed, but not one parent told the board they planned to go through with that threat Thursday night. | – Every year for a decade, kindergarten students at Sartorette Elementary School in San Jose have been writing letters to Santa then delivering them to the man himself on a school-sponsored outing. Not this year. The Cambrian School District says this month's field trip to meet Santa Claus at a local coffee shop has been canceled after a Jewish mother complained that the school board was honoring Christianity above other religions and her 5-year-old might feel left out. "The field trip was tied to two writing workshops that were supposed to be spent writing to Santa," the woman, identified only as Talia, tells ABC7. "There was also a reindeer party and other Christmas related activities. There was nothing done for the Diwali festival" or for Ramadan, she adds, noting there are also Muslim and Hindu students in the class. "We need to teach about all the holidays," she says, per CBS San Francisco. "We live in a global society." Some support Talia's move. "I think in the world of intolerance that we live in anything we can do to promote tolerance and understanding is going to be a benefit to everybody," says a fellow parent. But Talia says she's also taken a lot of flak. "I had some parents that called me a communist, that said that I didn't want any holidays in the school," she says. Some even threatened to pull their children out of school on Friday and accused Talia of ruining Christmas and starting a "war on Christmas," per the San Jose Mercury News. "It's really scary how one parent can go and voice her opinion and then everything gets shut down," says a parent. NBC Bay Area reports parents from eight cultures spoke to the class about different customs on Thursday. (Parents are peeved about this school's calligraphy lesson.) |
(CNN) -- The deal ending the shutdown may not have put a dent in Obamacare, but the battle over implementing the health coverage law is not over.
CNN Fact Check: Obamacare
One venue that Republicans are turning to for leverage, starting next week: oversight hearings, beginning with some tough questions about why the rollout of the website for enrolling in health care exchanges is having so many problems.
"The American people deserve to know what caused this mess," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "Delays and technical failures have reached epidemic proportions."
Obama: Website glitches unacceptable
Upton has already asked officials from the Department of Health and Human Services to brief his committee on the problems at a hearing scheduled for next Thursday. He also is asking them to turn over records of their communications with website contractors about the preparations for the site's launch, and the problems people have had trying to use it.
Logging into Healthcare.gov tough for some early registrants
Additionally, the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, last week wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius demanding information about the rollout problems. Joining him was Sen. Lamar Alexander, ranking Republican on the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions.
HHS official: Sebelius not available to testify Thursday
One issue has been the ability to log in to healthcare.gov. A senior administration official told CNN some users, especially those who signed up "early on," have been having trouble logging in, but the administration is working on a fix. There also was conflicting word on whether some passwords were deleted if they were created in the first week or so after the launch.
Sebelius concedes there have been implementation difficulties.
"I'll be the first to tell you that the website launch was rockier than we would have liked," she told an audience in Cincinnati on Wednesday, during her tour to promote Obamacare. But, she told CNN affiliate WLWT, "There are constant improvements under way, so that we are getting people in much more quickly."
Nevertheless, a couple of Republicans have called on Sebelius to resign.
"Enough is enough," said Sen. Pat Roberts, who has called for her to step down in spite of being a longtime friend of her family. "Secretary Sebelius has had three and a half years to launch Obamacare, and she has failed."
Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana tells CNN he is working to collect signatures calling for Sebelius to leave.
White House spokesman Jay Carney pushed back on Tuesday.
"The secretary does have the full confidence of the president," he told reporters. And when he was asked Thursday who would be held accountable for the problems with the website, Carney replied, "The people who are responsible for making it work are hard at work, fixing the problems that need to be fixed."
He focused instead on the benefits the uninsured Americans are now entitled to.
"The result will be millions of Americans who have insurance who did not have it before. That's the goal. And the goal is not about the website. The goal is that the American people who have been shut out of affordable health care options in the past have those options available to them."
But former White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, while not naming names, said of the website on MSNBC, "when they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge."
Gibbs: Fire those who botched website
Public attention may have been focused more on the shutdown fight this month than the problems with enrolling in the exchanges. But with the shutdown ended, part of the emerging Republican message is that the problems with the Obamacare website reflect broader problems with the law overall.
"I think this is emblematic of how problematic this is going to be in the future," said Fleming. At a minimum, the implementation of the individual mandate, requiring people to get health care, should be delayed, he said.
But a spokeswoman for Sebelius said the online enrollment process is proceeding.
"While traffic is down somewhat from its peak on day one, it remains high as Americans continue to seek to learn more about their new coverage options," said spokeswoman Joanne Peters.
How many have signed up for health care? Well, it depends ||||| Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday that the ailing health insurance Web site was improving thanks to “relentless” efforts to work out the bugs, and cited an uptick in enrollment as evidence that the program is back on track after a false start.
But she told a congressional panel that the problems that initially plagued HealthCare.gov were “unacceptable,” and that as a result she was creating a new position in the department to head off similar failures and had directed the HHS inspector general to investigate what went wrong.
“The initial launch of Healthcare.gov was flawed, frustrating and unacceptable,” Sebelius told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “Now that the Web site is working more smoothly, I’ve determined it’s the right time to begin a process of better understanding the structural and managerial policies that led to the flawed launch so we can take action to avoid these problems in the future.”
About 365,000 Americans chose health plans during the first two months of the federal and state insurance marketplaces, administration officials announced Wednesday, bringing the total to more than triple the meager enrollment from October.
A report accompanying the announcement showed that the number of people who collectively signed up for coverage in the 14 states running their own insurance exchanges continued to outpace the total enrollment from the three dozen states relying on the federal marketplace.
During the hearing, Sebelius disclosed that through the end of October, the administration had spent $319 million on information technology related to HealthCare.gov — up from the $174 million figure she cited during her last appearance before the committee Oct. 30.
Asked by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the committee, if she would have delayed the Oct. 1 launch date for HealthCare.gov, Sebelius responded, “On balance, I am not sure what the right answer is.”
“I would have done a slower launch, maybe with fewer people and perhaps more beta testing,” she said a little bit later.
Republicans also hammered on a theme that they have centered on in recent weeks as the administration has labored to repair the Web site — that the problems with the health-care law extend far beyond the technological issues. They cited the millions of Americans whose health plans are being cancelled despite assurances from President Obama that people who liked their insurance could keep it under his law.
“Millions of Americans are being harmed by this law,” Health subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) said. “My constituents do not trust the administration when it comes to the Affordable Care Act, and it is they who are suffering because of these broken promises.
But the uptick in enrollment provided fodder for Democratic lawmakers, who have struggled to defend the law’s poor rollout this fall but contended on Wednesday that the health law’s benefits were finally coming into focus now that the Web site is functioning better.
“We’re beginning to hear the stories of people finally getting the security and peace of mind that comes with quality health insurance,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said. “And some of these stories are very powerful.”
In a blog post published Wednesday morning before the hearing, Sebelius said she has asked HHS Inspector General Dan Levinson, to review the development of the Web site with a particular focus on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency known as CMS that oversaw the creation of the Web site, and the private firms that were contracted to work on the project.
She also announced the creation of a “chief risk officer” within CMS, who will report to the agency’s administrator, Marilyn Tavenner. The officer’s first task will be to review acquisition and contracting related to information technology.
The review is the latest sign that the Obama administration has moved into a new phase in its effort to manage fallout from the broken Web site, which stumbled out of the gate Oct. 1, suffering frequent crashes and other technical bugs. After meeting its self-imposed deadline to fix the site for most users by Dec. 1, the administration is now embarking on an effort to repair trust in the program.
Sebelius’s announcement follows news last week that the White House was bringing back a former aide, Phil Schiliro, to help oversee its health policy efforts.
The measures announced by Sebelius on Wednesday constitute “initial steps” of a broader accountability effort and will center largely on contracting and the Medicare agency. Administration officials have repeatedly blamed the main contractor on the project, CGI Federal, for many of the lapses. The firm has said it did the job it was hired to do and faulted the Medicare agency, which had ultimate responsibility for managing and testing the overall project.
In the wake of the problems, the administration hired a different firm, Quality Software Services Inc., to serve as general contractor in charge of the project and brought in Jeffrey Zients, a former acting head of the Office of Budget and Management, to oversee the fixes.
HHS is the third-largest federal contracting agency, Sebelius said in her blog post, with CMS spending $5.3 billion on contracting in 2013 alone. “We must take steps to ensure that our contractors are well managed, and that they fulfill their commitments and provide good services and products for our tax dollars,” she said. | – The ObamaCare website hasn't just been plagued by traffic problems and design flaws; it has also collected inaccurate or incomplete data on a number of people who have managed to enroll, insurance companies tell the Wall Street Journal. Among the mistakes: Some spouses were reported as children, many people double- or triple-enrolled by hitting the submit button too many times, and in at least one case, a single family was listed as having three spouses. It's so bad that Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska has hired temporary employees to call enrollees who have submitted error-ridden applications. "It takes an automated process and turns it into a manual process," a Blue Cross sales manager says. Republicans see this kind of technical incompetence as their next opening to attack ObamaCare, CNN reports. Some Republicans are calling for Kathleen Sebelius' head—one rep is working on a petition to force her out—and Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa is demanding information from her. "Delays and technical failures have reached epidemic proportions," says Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton, who has scheduled his own hearing on the matter. |
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Credit: Julius Schorzman via Wikimedia Commons
Anyone who has ever carried a tray full of pint glasses without getting their feet wet knows that such a feat is hard work , but perhaps our sympathies should go out to the baristas in coffee shops instead. New research has concluded that carrying coffee without spilling is harder than beer since the foam on the surface of beer dampens sloshing.A team of physicists at Princeton and NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering set up an experiment which jolts three identical pint glasses carrying Guinness, Heineken, and black coffee, and measures the resulting oscillations.This video is the team's entry to the annual APS Gallery of Fluid Motion competition and explains their whole analysis.The pint of Guinness, which has the largest head of foam, sloshes the least, while the pint of coffee sloshes so much that it spills over the edge of the tall glass.To test this more rigorously, the team lead by Howard Stone of Princeton studied the sloshing of liquid in a thin, clear container, with various amounts of foam added on top. Each trial showed the characteristic motion of damped harmonic oscillation , but the amount of time it took for the sloshing to stop depended upon the height of the foam on top.It turns out that foam thicker than about 5 layers of bubbles is enough to damp out nearly all of the motion at the top of the foam. The team was also able to mathematically relate the amount of damping to the height of the foam, as shown in the video.These very practical results from a simple physics experiment could make things a lot easier for those in the industry of liquid transport. The researchers are presenting their work at next week's APS Division of Fluid Dynamics annual meeting.But the barista at your local coffee shop may still face challenges — after all, not everyone wants to order a cappuccino. In that case, the coffee sloshing research which won a 2012 Ig Nobel prize might be helpful.--By Tamela Maciel , also known as "pendulum" ||||| Synopsis: Science of Slosh
An image analysis program reveals the biomechanics of walking with coffee.
H. C. Mayer and R. Krechetnikov, Phys. Rev. E (2012)
Each morning, blurry-eyed physicists try to solve a frustratingly complex mechanical problem: how to walk with a full cup of coffee, without letting it slosh over the sides. Writing in Physical Review E, Hans Mayer and Rouslan Krechetnikov at the University of California, Santa Barbara, report their study of the biomechanics of walking with coffee and the factors that lead to spills.
The sloshing of liquid in a cylindrical container, like a mug, is similar to the motion of a pendulum: the natural frequencies of oscillation depend on the liquid’s height and diameter (and, of course, gravity). In a typical mug, 7 cm in diameter and 10 cm tall, the lowest frequency oscillation of the coffee rocking back and forth in the cup is easily excited by walking at a normal pace.
This gives an intuitive explanation of why coffee spills, but Mayer and Krechetnikov have found that noise—potentially caused by uneven steps or small jerks of the cup — plays an important role in amplifying the natural oscillations of coffee into a full-blown spill. They set up an image analysis program to track coffee levels in cups carried by human subjects, who were asked to either focus on keeping the coffee from spilling, or to walk without paying attention.
Staying focused makes it less likely a walker will spill his coffee, but Mayer and Krechetnikiv are still testing if this is because the vigilant coffee carrier acts as feedback control that is activated at the first signs of coffee tipping toward the rim. – Jessica Thomas | – Transporting a round of beers from the bar to your table is an achievable task, but you probably wouldn't want to carry three cups of coffee without lids. Scientists at Princeton and NYU are explaining why: When it comes to beer, we have the bubbles to thank, the Smithsonian reports. Using high-speed cameras, the researchers recorded motion on the surface of several drinks: coffee, amber beer, and Guinness. Foam reduced sloshing, and the experts say it's because the foam absorbs the energy of the moving liquid. More foam meant less sloshing. That means that if you're looking for an easy-to-carry beer, Guinness may be your best bet. Why, you ask, are scientists spending their time on this? Well, it's not just to have a better night out. The study, an abstract says, "has promising applications in numerous industrial applications such as the transport of liquid in cargoes." And believe it or not, this isn't the first time the physics of coffee spillage has received study, Physics Central reports: A couple of years ago, "blurry-eyed physicists" tried to figure out how to walk with a full cup of coffee without spilling any, as the American Physical Society noted. (Some of us respond very inappropriately when our beer is spilled.) |
× Lorain police: Dad overdoses with baby in car; Mom overdoses at home with other children
LORAIN, Ohio– A mother and father were arrested after Lorain police say they both overdosed in the presence of their children.
An officer found Nathan A. Carroll, 29, in a mini van in the area of West 24th Street and Leavitt Road Monday evening. According to the police report, the van had just missed hitting a tree and an infant was in the backseat.
Carroll was blue in the face and had shallow breathing. When paramedics arrived, they administered Naloxone, a heroin antidote, several times.
Police responded to Carroll’s house on Westview Court, where a young girl answered the door. The officer eventually spoke with Samantha R. Schigel, 24, who said she snorted a powder with Carroll then he left with the baby to get some food.
During her conversation with police, Schigel became unresponsive on several occasions, the police report said. Paramedics also gave her Naloxone.
The couple was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center, then to the Lorain City Jail for booking. Carroll was arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence, endangering children, driving under suspension and failure to control. Schigel was arrested for endangering children.
Police contacted Lorain County Childrens Services. Grandparents took custody of the couple’s five children.
The suspects told police they believed they used heroin. But, according to the Lorain Police Department, the substance tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl. Carroll and Schigel will likely face drug-related charges. ||||| LORAIN, Ohio -- A man accused of crashing his car with a child inside as a result of a heroin overdose made his first court appearance before a judge in Lorain County.
Nathan Carroll, 29, and his wife Samantha Schigel, 24, both face child endangering charges. Carroll faces additional charges of driving with a revoked or suspended license, operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs and alcohol and other charges in the incident that happened Monday evening.
Attorney Michael Duff made a court appearance Thursday on their behalf and entered not-guilty pleas.
Carroll is free on a $3,000 bond and Schigel was released on a $1,000 bond, a court bailiff said.
The arrests happened about 5 p.m. Monday after a passerby saw a 2006 Chrysler Town and Country drive off of West 24th Street onto Leavitt Road and up a curb, according to a police report. Carroll passed out after driving up the curb.
Police gave Carroll two doses of Narcan, an opioid overdose remedy, and paramedics administered more Narcan when they arrived on scene, according to the report. He woke up and was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center.
Officers learned Schigel suffered an overdose across the street in the 2300 block of Westview Court, the report says. Officers said Schigel and Carroll were snorting a substance they thought was heroin just before Carroll decided to leave to go get food for the family with the child in the car, according to the report.
The infant, whose age is not listed in a police report, was not harmed and is currently in the custody of a family member, Lorain police Lt. Ed Super said.
If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments section. | – Cops say a 29-year-old Ohio man crashed his minivan—with an infant in the backseat—while suffering a drug overdose, reports Fox 8. Both survived, but the story then takes a turn for the worse: When officers arrived at Nathan Carroll's Lorain home to tell his wife what happened, they learned that she, too, had just suffered an overdose. A girl of about age 6 answered the door, and officers found 24-year-old Samantha Schigel inside, surrounded by children, reports ABC News. "Mommy was sleeping and they could not wake her up," a neighbor quotes one of the kids as saying. Both Carroll and Schigel were given overdose antidote naloxone and taken to a hospital, where they recovered. Police say Schigel later explained that she and Carroll had snorted a powdered substance they believed was heroin before Carroll left to get food for the family, reports Cleveland.com. (The crash occurred just across the street from the family home.) Police say a white powder found at the home tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl. Schigel is now charged with child endangerment, while Carroll faces charges including child endangerment and driving under the influence. Both pleaded not guilty Thursday and are free on bond. Their five children—including the infant involved in the accident, who was uninjured—are staying with grandparents. (A couple fatally overdosed with their three children in the backseat.) |
CLOSE Personal Technology columnist Ed Baig takes a look at the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. (Photo: Apple)
NEW YORK — Are the bigger iPhones worth all this big time attention? The answer is a resounding yes, a point emphasized by consumers who've preordered the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus in record numbers. These are the phones Apple devotees have been waiting for: iPhones that measure up to what's fast becoming the new normal — the large, modern smartphone display. Count me among those glad they're here.
People have preordered on faith, since they haven't seen these super-sized iPhones up close or experienced what they feel like in pockets and handbags. I have and let me be reassuring — you won't regret your decision, though going big may require a small adjustment, and my experience wasn't totally trouble-free.
The new phones are enclosed in sturdy anodized aluminum. And though the handsets are bigger and heavier their predecessors, they're also thinner. The sleep/power button has moved to the side. Each has the Touch ID fingerprint scanner introduced on the iPhone 5s.
The 6 Plus is the first Apple phone to enter the phablet category popularized by Samsung's Notes. Samsung has been running ads — a bit defensively I think — knocking the new iPhone as playing catch-up with even its older Notes models. But while Samsung's phablets are equipped with souped-up styluses called the S Pen for writing and other tricks, Apple eschews the pen.
Here's a closer look at the 6 Plus and the 6.
• SIZING UP THE SIZES. The iPhone 5 and 5s really do look like a kid brother placed next to the 6 or 6 Plus; the iPhone 4 or 4s models are practically toddler-sized.
I prefer the 6 Plus because I like the biggest of the big screens, and like that I have to squint less often. It felt fine in my jeans pocket, but won't fit every snug purse or small pair of hands.
The 5.5-inch 6 Plus has an 88% larger viewing area than the 5s. The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 has a 38% larger area. Both have splendid Retina HD displays, with resolutions of 1334 X 750 and 1920 X 1080 respectively.
The screens accommodate an extra row of home screen icons. And when you're, say, checking your calendar, you can glance at seven days of appointments at once on the 6 Plus in the weekly landscape view, compared with six days on the 6 or five days on the 5.
The iPhone 6 Plus, at left, and iPhone 6 are displayed on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Cupertino, Calif. (Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP)
It's harder (but not impossible) to use the iPhone 6 Plus one-handed, even with Apple adding a gesture called Reachability which makes the top portion of the display move down toward the bottom when you gently double-tap the home button.
It's also still a tad unnatural to hold a really large phone up to your ear during a call. In that sense the 6 felt more comfortable.
Apple made other accommodations on the 6 Plus: When you rotate the phone to its side, some apps display a two-panel view. On both new phones you have the option of choosing a standard view with normal-size icons and fonts, or a zoomed view that gives you bigger controls but less room for other stuff.
Developers may have to make some adjustments before their apps are iPhone 6 Plus- ready. The search icon inside the YouTube app actually touched the Bluetooth icon and the battery gauge in the Apple task bar.
The rumored rugged Sapphire display didn't happen (though Sapphire covers the Touch ID button and the camera lens), so if you're the type to protect your phone with a case, you'll obviously have to spring for a bigger replacement.
• CAMERAS. Larger displays double as larger viewfinders, a benefit to photographers. You can use either volume button to fire off a picture, which is nice. I generally found the 6 easier to maneuver, though the 6 Plus has an optical image-stabilization feature that the 6 lacks, to reduce the shakes when you're taking a photo. Both models have a cinematic stabilization feature for keeping video steady. Video I shot on the 6 Plus from a moving car came out smooth. However, on the 6 Plus I once couldn't stop shooting a video, an apparent bug. You can now shoot high-definition videos at a faster (60fps) frame rate and also shoot time-lapse videos. And Apple has also improved the focusing system. I was pleased with the quality of pictures and videos I shot.
Of note, selfie fans can now capture 10 photos per second as part of a burst mode feature added to the front camera. I took advantage of a timer feature that gives you three or 10 seconds to prepare for your close-up burst.
CLOSE Personal Technolgy columnist Ed Baig takes a look at iOS 8, Apple's latest mobile operating system.
• iOS 8. The operating system need not play second fiddle to the hardware; iOS 8 brings numerous improvements, starting with a better predictive Apple keyboard you come to appreciate quickly. The ability to install third-party keyboards as on Android phones is an added plus.
The new Health app is a useful repository for all sorts of health and fitness data. I used it to display the number of stairs I climbed, a measurement made possible by the barometer inside the new phones.
IOS 8 has also improved notifications and messaging. For example, you can tap and swipe to add a recording to an outgoing text message that can expire in two minutes. Also promising is a Family Sharing feature that lets you and other members of the household share a calendar, photos and iTunes, iBook and app purchases. You can make the kids ask before they buy. Expect frequent requests: The App Store now has more than 1.3 million apps.
• APPLE PAY. Can Apple get you to shop your way through a mall with a wave of your phone? We'll find out come October, when Apply Pay debuts for the 6 and 6 Plus.
I got to demo Apple Pay but not test it in the real world with crowded shoppers. The process certainly seems simple. In a store, you'll place the phone within about an inch of a compatible terminal while pressing the Touch ID fingerprint scanner to transact — pretty robust security right there. There's no need to unlock the phone.
Your credit cards are stored in the up-to-now seldom used Passbook app. Payment info is kept secure inside a chip on the phone. The merchant never sees your actual credit card number, and Apple is kept in the dark on what you bought or spent. If your phone is lost or stolen you can remove your cards from Passbook remotely through Find My iPhone. But there's no need to actually cancel your credit cards.
• BATTERY. Both new phones have bigger batteries, which should yield better results than on prior iPhones. Apple is touting longer battery life on the 6 Plus compared with the 6, up to 14 hours watching video, vs. 11 hours. I didn't conduct a formal test, but after a day of heavy mixed use, the battery on the 6 Plus pooped out about 7:15 p.m.
• GROWING PAINS. With the 6 and 6 Plus, Apple ditched a 32GB storage model. If you take lots of pictures and videos or download frequent apps, the 16GB entry capacity may not cut it. Now the step-up is 64GB or 128 GB.
Inside is a new Apple-designed A8 chip and the phone is snappy. But I hit a few snags, especially with the 6 Plus. A few times, the 6 Plus failed to rotate from landscape to portrait or back (the rotation lock was unlocked). Once the Mail app froze. Another time the 6 Plus restarted on its own. Reachability also didn't work one time until I rebooted the phone. Hopefully this is an aberration.
Notwithstanding such growing pains, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are smartphone stars. Really big stars.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
IPhone 6 and 6 Plus
www.apple.com
IPhone 6 is $199 (16 GB), $299 (64GB) and $399 (128GB) with two year contracts from AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless or $649, $749 or $849, contract-free from T-Mobile.
IPhone 6 Plus is $299, $399 and $499 on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon with two-year contracts, or $749, $849 or $949 contract-free from T-Mobile.
Pro. Large displays provide extra screen real estate. Touch ID. IOS features such as Health app and redesigned predictive keyboards. Improved camera and Photos app. Optical image stabilization (iPhone 6 Plus only).
Con. IPhone 6 Plus may be too large for some users. 6 Plus was buggy. You may need to buy new cases or other accessories to accommodate larger displays.
E-mail: [email protected]; Follow @edbaig on Twitter.
(Baig is the co-author of iPhone For Dummies, an independent work published by Wiley.)
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1u4I7wY ||||| CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apple® today announced it has sold more than 13 million new iPhone® 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models, a new record, just three days after launch. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available in more than 40 additional countries beginning October 9 including Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Taiwan. The new iPhones will be available in over 130 countries by the end of the year.
“Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Customers’ feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can’t wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in even more countries on October 9.”
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus bring a powerful new dimension to iPhone’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface with 3D Touch, which senses how deeply you press the display, letting you do essential things more quickly and simply. The new iPhones introduce Live Photos, which bring still images to life, transforming instants frozen in time into unforgettable living memories. Live Photos, 3D Touch, 12-megapixel iSight® camera, 5-megapixel FaceTime® HD camera with Retina® Flash and more are powered by the Apple-designed A9 chip, the most advanced chip ever in a smartphone, delivering faster performance and great battery life. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are designed with the strongest glass on any smartphone and 7000 series aluminum, the same alloy used in the aerospace industry, in gorgeous metallic finishes that now include rose gold.
iOS 9, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, brings more intelligence to iPhone with proactive assistance, powerful search and improved Siri features, all while protecting users’ privacy. Built-in apps become more powerful with a redesigned Notes app, detailed transit information in Maps*, and an all-new News app for the best news reading experience on any mobile device. The foundation of iOS is even stronger with software updates that require less space to install and advanced security features to further protect your devices.
Customers are encouraged to check the Apple Store® app or Apple.com to receive updates on availability and estimated delivery dates. Every customer who buys an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus at an Apple Retail Store will be offered free Personal Setup service, helping them customize their iPhone by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store℠ and more, so they’ll be up and running with their new iPhone before they leave the store. Customers can also learn more about iOS 9 and their new device through free workshops at all Apple retail stores worldwide. In the US, the new iPhones are also available through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and additional carriers, and select Apple Authorized Resellers including Best Buy, Target and Walmart.
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will roll out worldwide to more than 40 additional countries and territories beginning October 9 including Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan. On October 10, countries include Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available in India, Malaysia and Turkey on Friday, October 16 and in over 130 countries by the end of the year.
Sales completed by Saturday, September 26 will be included in Apple’s 2015 fourth fiscal quarter results, and sales completed on Sunday, September 27 will be included in Apple’s 2016 first fiscal quarter results.
Pricing & Availability
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are available in gold, silver, space gray and the new rose gold metallic finishes for $0 down with 24 monthly payments starting at $27 (US) and $31 (US), respectively, from Apple’s retail stores in the US, Apple.com, select carriers and Apple Authorized Resellers.**
Apple-designed accessories including leather and silicone cases in a range of colors and Lightning Docks in color-matched metallic finishes are also available.
Exclusively at Apple’s retail stores in the US, customers can choose their carrier and get an unlocked iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus with the opportunity to get a new iPhone annually and AppleCare+ on the new iPhone Upgrade Program. Monthly payments start at $32 (US) and $37 (US), respectively. For more information on the iPhone Upgrade Program visit www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program or a US Apple Retail Store.***
Customers can visit Apple.com to reserve their iPhone for pick-up at their local Apple Store, based on availability. Most Apple stores also have iPhone available for walk-in customers each day.
*Transit information in Maps will be available in select major cities including Baltimore, Berlin, Chicago, London, Mexico City, New York City, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto and Washington D.C., as well as over 300 cities in China, including Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai. News app availability varies by country.
**Prices are rounded to nearest dollar and are based on 24 monthly installment payments. Taxes and activation fees may be due at sale. Carrier terms and eligibility may apply.
***The iPhone Upgrade Program is available to qualified customers only with a valid US personal credit card. Requires a 24-month installment loan with Citizens Bank, N.A. and iPhone activation with a national carrier — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon. Full terms apply.
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, the Mac and Apple Watch. Apple’s three software platforms — iOS, OS X and watchOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.
NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple’s PR website (www.apple.com/pr), or call Apple’s Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042.
© 2015 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, MultiTouch, iSight, FaceTime, Retina, Apple Store and App Store are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. ||||| Here’s the best way to start an iPhone review: Goddamn do I love Android. I love its flexibility and efficiency. I love the way it bends to my will. And I’ve spent the past couple years loving that I can get a phone that isn’t made for someone with doll hands. So when I first saw the iPhone 6 Plus, bursting with extra inches—and iOS 8, finally sporting modern mobile features—I thought to myself, this might be the phone that brings me back to Apple.
Apple iPhone 6 Plus 8/10 Wired Excellent camera quality produces amazing images. Almost impossible to shoot blurry video, even of uncooperative toddlers. Battery life will keep you going all day and well into the night. Glorious, vivid, roomy display will make you want to throw out your iPad. Do you enjoy making jokes about having something big in your pants? This is the phone for you. Tired You call these widgets, iOS 8? I want to be able to read my email right on my home screen. It scratches. It bends. How We Rate 1/10 A complete failure in every way
A complete failure in every way 2/10 Sad, really
Sad, really 3/10 Serious flaws; proceed with caution
Serious flaws; proceed with caution 4/10 Downsides outweigh upsides
Downsides outweigh upsides 5/10 Recommended with reservations
Recommended with reservations 6/10 Solid with some issues
Solid with some issues 7/10 Very good, but not quite great
Very good, but not quite great 8/10 Excellent, with room to kvetch
Excellent, with room to kvetch 9/10 Nearly flawless
Nearly flawless 10/10 Metaphysical perfection
For years, we talked about iPhone killers, but after taking on all comers, it really does seem like Google snuck in a massive reversal: Apple 2014 needs an Android killer. Which in my mind means it needed to abandon the idea that there is One True Screen Size and One True Way To Get Things Done. So I’ve really been looking forward to this big phone, and the interactive notifications, cross-application sharing and widgets of iOS 8. Because while Android may have the slickest OS, nobody can touch the application ecosystem on iOS. It’s the one thing I miss, and this new phone seemed like the device that would find a middle ground.
And guess what: The iPhone 6 Plus is the best, most exciting phone Apple has released in many years. I love this phone. The hardware is unparalleled, the app ecosystem is unparalleled, and the operating system has really matured. In fact, from a hardware perspective at least, this is the most compelling smartphone I’ve ever used. Mostly.
It’s not just high quality, it’s positively refreshing. In recent years iPhones have felt like clone phones—the tyranny of Apple’s uniformity may be great for making apps, but it means that if you have big fingers or bad eyesight or just want your video a little more blown up on the train you had to leave the fold. The 6 Plus breaks away from that, which is fantastic. Its size is a statement, an admission that everything shouldn’t be the same for everyone. It’s going after market segments. It’s fragmenting the iOS experience.
One of those segments? Dads. I’ve been looking forward to trying the 6 Plus because it seemed like the perfect dadphone, and I’m a father with two kids under the age of four. It has a fast camera, amazing battery life, and a big gorgeous screen—perfect for shooting videos of quick-moving, photo-resistant children and watching marathon sessions of Daniel Tiger on road trips. Plus, SquareTrade claims the new class of iPhones are the least breakable ever. Dadcore. A Brooklyn beardo in super tight jeans may not care about any of those things, but I do. Maybe you care about something completely different. That’s what’s great about Apple rolling out different-sized devices. People are different. Phones should be different. Think different.
It’s a great sign for Apple that it doesn’t revere Steve Jobs’ public statements as immutable truths anymore.
You can see just how much of a breakaway this phone is when you take it out in public for a few days. I’ve been toting around iPhones since the day the original one came out—when I stood in line to buy two (one for myself and one for a friend overseas, which he then sold for a profit). I’ve carried lots of other handsets in the intervening years, too: Androids. Windows Phones. Even Palms.
But not since that first iPhone have I carried something that other people were as unabashedly curious about. Co-workers have asked me about it. People I’m interviewing for other stories have derailed conversations to quiz me about it. A guy on the bus asked me about it. A guy in line at the coffee shop asked me about it. A waiter asked me about it. My wife, who long ago became immune to gadget fascination, asked me about it. Everyone wants to see my phone; everyone wants to hold it.
It’s hard to blame the people who want to touch my phone. I mean, it’s so big. Now, I’m a big-ish phone guy. For a couple of years now, I’ve listened to iPhone people laugh at my big-ish, 5-inch Android phones. But once you go get used to holding a big unit in your hand, it’s impossible to feel satisfied by something smaller. When I use a 5 or 5s now, the screen (and especially the keyboard) feels cramped. Even the iPhone 6 feels a little small to me now.
It’s a Big World
There’s a truism that people in the developing world embraced big phones because the smartphone is often their only computer. That single screen is the desktop, the laptop, the tablet and the smartphone all in one. Sometimes, it’s even the television.
I’d argue that the only reason we haven’t seen a similar movement stateside is because the iPhone is so firmly entrenched, and Apple has until now been unrelenting in its insistence that 4 inches was all anyone needed. Yet once you get used to a large screen, it’s really hard to use a smaller one. And clearly there’s a demand for large phones—the Galaxy Note has been a huge hit for Samsung.
With the 6 Plus, you get all the advantages of a big screen phone—reading, watching videos, playing games, and looking at images—and you also get the superb iPhone UI and application ecosystem.
Those big screen tasks are wonderful on this phone. Apps are roomy enough for your fat fingers to feel nimble again. Reading big chunks of text is a delight. You can see so many tweets! The display is brilliantly bright and detailed, at 401 pixels per inch (ppi). You feel like you can dive into its pictures and videos. Meanwhile you get more out of apps; the mere fact of being able to view more things on screen makes them more useful.
Apple has also built some software tools into the 6 Plus that give it a boost over other big phones I’ve used. Take Touch ID: It’s a saving throw. Not only can you use it to log into the phone or make purchases in the Apple Store, but by extending its API to play nice with apps like 1Password and Dashlane, you can use the little scanner to log into all kinds of websites in just a few taps. That means you don’t have to move your fingers all around the device to get to a password field; you can log in one-handed. You can also double tap that same Touch ID button—the home button—to bring the top section of an application down to the bottom of the screen. That makes entering a new URL or performing other tasks at the top of the screen one-handed possibilities.
And that’s good because I cannot wrap my fingers all the way around this thing. It’s just too wide.
It’s Still Alive
There is another advantage of going big: battery life. I am hard on phones. I use them all day, every day. I start my morning on the bus, reading news, watching videos and listening to streaming music, all over LTE. Because I’m very active on Twitter, get a lot of email, and have something like three to four bajillion apps installed, my phone is constantly vibrating with notifications. I also take a lot of pictures and videos (hey, I have kids). This means I have to charge my nearly year-old Nexus 5 by 2 or 3 pm most days. Even brand-new phones, right out of the box, will rarely make it all the way through the day for me. Yet I’ve gone to bed every night, and put my 6 Plus to its charger with some battery life to spare. I’ve never had to charge it up mid-day. I’ve never had to worry it’s going to fail on me.
No matter what Steve Jobs may have said, big phones are better. It’s a great sign for Apple that it doesn’t revere his public statements as immutable truths.
Focus on size alone, however, and you won’t see the full picture. It has an amazing camera too. Other than the Lumia 1020, I’ve never managed to take such great photos and videos with a phone. Even when I’ve tried to shoot lousy footage by moving my phone around while shooting to try to lose focus, I’ve failed. That’s because Apple’s phase-detection autofocus (or: Focus Pixels) makes sure your shots refocus quickly, even when you or your subject is in motion. My low-light photos have exhibited almost zero graininess. There’s this thing where you walk into a room, look at your children sleeping, and want to capture the moment. But you can’t, because your phone doesn’t perform well in low light and its flash will wake them up. For the first time, the 6 Plus let me capture those bedtime pictures of sweet slumbering children that I’d always wanted to take. Dadcore.
There is nothing bad to say about this camera. The camera hardware and software represents a new gold standard. Everything about this phone is, at first blush, a new gold standard. It even bends faster than other phones. Yeah, so, about that…
Like a lot of people, I have a bent iPhone 6 Plus. It’s almost imperceptible, but it’s there: a slight warp right at the buttons on the side. Put the phone screen down on a table, and it wobbles. I haven’t purposefully bent it and I don’t recall sitting on it (but I probably have). So why is this one bending? I have a theory: It might have something to do with it being both very thin and very big and made of aluminum. The Samsung Galaxy Note3 is big, but it’s also 4 mm thicker than the iPhone 6 Plus and doesn’t have an aluminum back that, when bent, stays bent. You don’t hear about big Android phones bending because they are either too thick, or made out of plastic. That’s my theory, anyway.
That’s not the only physical defect. My screen is also scratched. There are three small but distinct scratches, and I’ve no idea how any of them got there. I haven’t carried my keys in my pocket with it. I haven’t done anything unusual with it. But there they are.
So after four days, I have a slightly bent, slightly scratched phone. Which means that, while this is the best hardware I’ve ever used—from the processor to the camera to the display—I’m worried about durability.
And look, for me this isn’t such a big deal, because I didn’t pay for the phone. It’s a loaner, sent over by Apple. But if I had paid $1,000 for this phone off contract—or even $300 for the smallest version with a new two year contract—I would be pretty irritated. I certainly would be in line for a replacement.
This is a luxury phone. This is the status symbol phone, the one you high-roll into a Macau casino holding. Bending, or warping, or whatever you want to call it after a few days is unacceptable.
But this is what’s so nuts: Even with the bends, I’m still extremely into the hardware. Even with the bends, I still love this phone. I can’t say if the phone is going to keep bending, or if it’s going to get really bad with normal use, because that hasn’t happened to me. I love the hardware, but if you’re thinking of buying this phone, you need to know that it’s delicate like a tea cup.
There are some other minor quirks. The camera doesn’t always open from the lock screen, which makes catching those kid pics frustrating. The apps crash too frequently—even Apple’s own apps. But the biggest downside to me is that iOS 8 just isn’t as productive or customizable an operating system as Android is. You may be able to bend this phone, but you can’t bend it to your will.
I miss having my email right on my homescreen. Why should I have to launch an app or go to notifications to see all my latest messages? And then there’s Google Now, which is basically the smartest software I’ve ever used. When I fly, it surfaces my plane tickets. When I want to go out and get lunch, it tells me what’s around me, without having to ask. Sure, you can use Google Now on iOS, but it isn’t just resident throughout, which is exactly the point of Google Now.
And so where do we land here? This is the best smartphone hardware I’ve ever used. It’s gorgeous and luxurious and seems almost decadent. I adore the display. I’m even more smitten with the camera. The battery life is a triumph. The applications are so much better and more varied than what you’ll find on Android or Windows Phone that those other two platforms seem almost untenable by comparison. (Which, of course, they aren’t. Both have their own strengths.)
This device is hard to sum up. Everything about it is wonderful, and if the bending doesn’t get any worse, and the scratches remain minor, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone. It’s a truly wonderful phone, the best from a purely hardware perspective I’ve ever used.
It’s clear evidence that Apple is embracing the entire world and starting to offer a wider variety of devices for a wider world of individuals with varying needs and desires. And that’s a great thing.
At the end of my time with it, however, I popped my SIM card back into my Nexus 5, with its busted-ass screen, because I just want to answer my email and get the hell back to my life again. iOS 8 is wonderfully improved, but it’s still not for me. It takes too many taps, lacks too many options, and honestly the way it organizes your apps is just a mess. It turns out, the most important dadcore feature in a phone isn’t a great camera or a big screen, it’s the ability to put it away quickly and get on with your life.
When you buy something using the retail links in our product reviews, we earn a small affiliate commission. Read more about how this works. ||||| Bigger. Bigger. Bigger.
The new Apple iPhones going on sale this week, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, have crisper screens, faster processors and sharper cameras.
And, as you might have heard, they are also bigger than previous iPhones — the 6 Plus by a long shot — joining the stampede toward bigger handsets.
But after almost a week of trying the phones, it became clear that the hardware was not the best part of the package. In its quest to deliver bigger phones to a market clamoring for them, Apple has made one phone that is actually a little too small and one that’s a little too big. (Apple lent The New York Times an iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus under the condition that a review would be not be published before Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.)
The best part of the new phones is actually the new software inside, which is available for some older models, too, starting on Wednesday. The software, iOS 8, combines some of the advanced features of Android with Apple’s ease of use and reliability. | – Tech experts are applauding the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, noting the bigger screens and improved features. But the critics aren't without their reservations about the new devices, which, they say, aren't exactly revolutionary: "It's clear that Apple spent the last year tweaking and improving every square inch of the iPhone," writes David Pierce at the Verge, reviewing the 6. For instance, it "takes better pictures than any smartphone I've ever used." But it's "not terribly exciting, or groundbreaking. It’s just excellent." As for the 6 Plus, Nilay Patel at the Verge notes an "absolutely stunning display," but acknowledges that "there's nothing here that competitors aren't doing with their big phones." "Are the bigger iPhones worth all this big time attention? The answer is a resounding yes," writes Edward C. Baig in USA Today. But he has some complaints, particularly about the "buggy" 6 Plus, which, he found, has issues with freezing and rotation and is tough to use with one hand. In keeping with others, Brad Molen notes a camera lens that "sticks out" on the phones; the devices are also easily scratched. Still, he gives both phones high marks at Engadget, adding that the more comfortable 6 is "the better choice for most people." Still, the 6 Plus offers "more of an iPad-like user experience on a much smaller device." In the New York Times, Molly Wood writes that Apple has released "one phone that is actually a little too small and one that's a little too big." But the new operating system, iOS 8, "combines some of the advanced features of Android with Apple's ease of use and reliability." Overall, Apple remains "just in front of their competitors." |
Unless you had religiously followed him to the minor-league towns of Harrisburg and Syracuse -- unless you had seen footage from his college games at San Diego State -- the young pitcher with the howitzer right arm was still very much myth, something to be believed rather than broken down on celluloid.
Because baseball at its sublime best can still be a game of the imagination -- AM radio making you see an inside-the-park home run, excited tales of a kid who could throw more than 100 mph tumbling from an old scout's lips -- Stephen Strasburg, the person, did not take the mound two weeks before his 22nd birthday last night as much as Stephen Strasburg, folk hero with a forkball did.
Hardly interviewed before his first major league start, heard about more than seen in person, he pretty much walked out of a Ken Burns documentary or a Robert Redford screenplay.
"He does have this Roy Hobbs-like quality to him," said, yes, Ken Burns, the great chronicler of American history who took in the game Tuesday night at Nationals Park. "For those of us who haven't seen him, there's so much we take on faith."
Fourteen strikeouts later, on the most pristine night in Southeast Washington imaginable, believe.
Believe big.
Believe in everything you're hearing or they're saying about Strasburg, who incredibly surpassed expectations we almost felt guilty about heaping on him.
Heck, when they tell you he struck out "The Whammer" three weeks ago at a county fair while Robert Duvall called strikes in a meadow, believe that too.
Because when that same kid takes the mound at 7:06 p.m. and pitches almost flawlessly through seven innings -- moving the ball, changing speeds, mastering the moment -- it's not a myth anymore. It's the future.
"It's not just good, it's amazing what I see from him," Liv??n Hern??ndez said, surveying Strasburg sitting by his cubicle in the Nationals' clubhouse late Tuesday night. "I might never see a pitcher that young pitch like that in my life in his first game."
He froze hitters. He discombobulated Lastings Milledge with a curveball that went sideways, straight and then sideways again.
Fourteen strikeouts is one shy of any kid in major-league history making his debut. It's two more than the electronic 'K' line at Nationals Park could display. "I had no idea it only went to 12 strikeouts," Stan Kasten, the Nationals team president, said after the "It never occurred to me that we needed more."
And the noise, growing in decibels as each batter was sent back to the dugout.
"Let's go Strasburg! Let's go Strasburg!"
They chanted his name as he reared and fired that last strike and fanned the Pittsburgh side in the seventh, a 95 mph, high, blazing heater that brought 40,315 to their feet.
"I was able to talk to John Smoltz the other night, and he just reminded me to soak it all in," Strasburg said. "I went out earlier to stretch and really looked at everything around, looked at the fans. It's just a great experience, but once they said 'play ball,' it was go time."
When he trudged onto that field more than a half hour before his first start, he had this almost affected jocular walk, cowboy-like, as if he had been roping cattle and breaking stallions in the bullpen. Then came those bullets sailing toward home plate, two-seamers and four-seamers and that baffling curveball.
This is the most majestic part of a young phenom making a city stand and roar -- the beginning.
We love our agents of hope and change in this town, especially the young ones. John Wall will soon see. Bryce Harper, too.
Of course the romance gradually turns to reality. In sports and life, myth gives way to man. And we soon lump the messiahs in with the establishment -- Hello, Mr. President -- and the search for the next chosen one begins anew.
But the hope here is that comes way down the road for the rookie right-hander who sent everyone home happy and in awe on Tuesday night. That he paused for a moment of reflection and gratitude before the first pitch, just like John Smoltz told him to, says everything.
Nice, no? Strasburg took the time for at least one glance into the stands to see all the red, to see the euphoric faces from different generations filled with hope and possibility looking back at him.
It was the first night, the best night, and nothing that follows, good or bad, can take that away from him and the people who chanted his name. ||||| SEATTLE -- For the briefest moment Friday night, Tom Wilhelmsen did not realize just how great the greatest moment in his career was. It didn't really sink in until catcher Jesus Montero was leaping into his arms.
"I told him, 'Man, you threw a no-hitter!'" Montero said. "And he didn't know! Unbelievable."
Well, in WIlhelmsen's defense, he was the sixth pitcher of the night for the Mariners.
"Well, I mean, I knew what was going on. But no, I have a brain fart every so often and just focused so hard on getting one thing done," Wilhelmsen said. "It's not like you forget, but it's like you put it off to the side. And then it's like, 'Holy cow, we just did it,' and Montero is in my arms. And then it's, 'Holy Cow, we just did it!' 'HOLY COW, WE JUST DID IT!' Something like that.
"It's there; it just takes a minute to get it, pick it out and place it in."
Wilhelmsen wasn't the only one who needed time to take everything in. Brendan Ryan, a ninth-inning replacement at shortstop, said it took awhile for the rest of the Mariners to realize six Seattle pitchers had just combined to throw a 1-0 no-hitter against the Dodgers, the team with the best record in baseball.
"Coming into the ninth, it wasn't really on my mind. What was on my mind was preserving that 1-0 lead we fought so hard to get," said Ryan, who helped preserve both with a slick fielding play on Dee Gordon's grounder in the ninth. "We were just trying to get the W. It kind of took five seconds or so to sink in. 'Wait a minute. Wait a minute. There were no hits. That's a no-hitter!'"
Kevin Millwood (six innings) and five Mariners relievers combined to throw the fourth no-hitter of the season. Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images
Well, it's not surprising this combined six-pitcher no-hitter took so long to sink in. After all, it was as delightfully unrealistic and unpredictable as baseball gets.
Consider this: The man who started it (Kevin Millwood) is a 37-year-old journeyman who watched the final three innings on TV in the clubhouse while undergoing treatment for a sore groin. He didn't even get the win because the game was still tied at 0 when he left. The winning pitcher (Stephen Pryor) is a 22-year-old rookie who was in Triple-A Tacoma the last time the Mariners played a game in Seattle. And the reliever on the mound at the end (Wilhelmsen) is a former bartender.
Man, baseball is great, isn't it?
Millwood threw a 1-0 no-hitter with the Phillies in 2003, but he is with his ninth organization in the past decade and spent four months of last season pitching in the minors for two different teams. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning against Colorado on May 18, then allowed only a walk in the first six innings Friday. But he left the game with a sore groin while warming up for the seventh inning and spent the last part of the no-hitter wearing an ice pack.
"In the seventh and part of the eighth, I still wasn't having much fun," he said. "But to see it just continue and continue, and Brandon League got a couple of big outs for us, and when Tom came in, I think we were all pretty excited in here."
After Charlie Furbush recorded the first two outs, Pryor earned his first major league win in a no-hitter -- how many people can say that? -- by retiring one batter in the top of the seventh. After Seattle took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh, Pryor promptly walked the first two batters in the eighth.
Out went Pryor, and in came rookie Lucas Luetge, who retired the only batter he faced on a sacrifice bunt. That brought in League, who has pitched so poorly this year that he lost the closer role last week. This time, he bailed his team out of a second-and-third, one-out mess.
Then Wilhelmsen came in to pitch the ninth. Three years ago, Wilhelmsen was a bartender in Tucson, Ariz., who had been out of baseball for five seasons. He was moved into the closer role so recently that he earned his first save last week and still hasn't asked for special walk-up music. But he pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to complete the second six-pitcher no-hitter in major league history.
Of course, the no-hitter didn't register for Wilhelmsen until Montero took a running start to leap into his arms.
"I was so just in tune to getting the out and getting the W that for a moment I forgot to relax and accept this no-hitter," Wilhelmsen said. "Once he was up and excited, it turned my buttons a little bit."
Defense is not considered Montero's strong suit -- he has been a designated hitter more often than he has been behind the plate this year -- but the rookie can boast that he helped guide six pitchers to a no-hitter. "At my age, 22 years old, that was my dream, to catch a no-hitter," Montero said. "Thank God I had it. I was praying. I was praying behind the plate. I wanted those guys to hit a ground ball so we could have a no-hitter. And then we got it."
And now that they had it, the question was what to do. After all, how do you divide up a game ball for six pitchers?
"I don't know the protocol on that," Wilhelmsen said. "Do I keep it? Do I give it to Millwood? Do I give it to the team? Does it belong in the clubhouse?"
"I hope we've got a bunch of them so we can all have at least one," Millwood said. "I don't know who gets it, but it's not going to be me. One of those guys deserves it more than me. Like I said, the first six [innings], we've seen that done a lot of times, but getting those last nine outs is a lot tougher." | – Drew Storen said it best: “He’s the only guy in baseball who lives up to all the stories you hear.” And, oh the stories they told. Stephen Strasburg made his major league debut touted as the greatest pitching prospect of all time—a “folk hero with a forkball,” writes Mike Wise of the Washington Post. Yet somehow he actually exceeded all that hype, striking out 14—two less than the Nationals’ scoreboard could hold. “I had no idea it only went to 12 strikeouts,” said the team’s president. “It never occurred to me that we needed more.” It was the greatest debut of all time, says Jayson Stark of ESPN. Yes, two other rookies have managed 15 punchouts in their maiden outings, but that was in the days before pitch counts, and both went nine innings. Strasburg, on a 94-pitch leash, crammed those Ks into seven. Heck, forget debuts; only five other pitchers have ever managed 14 strikeouts and no walks. That's pretty memorable, unless you're Stephen Strasburg. “It’s kind of like getting married,” he told the AP. “You go into it wanting to remember everything, and once it's done, you can't remember a single thing.” |
One man is in custody after a deadly shooting in Bude.
One man is in custody after a deadly shooting in Bude. Franklin County Sheriff James Newman says it happened about 6:20 Friday evening near the intersection of D and Gerard Streets. Juan Middleton,
A tragic accident claimed a life in Simpson County. A man was hit and killed by a train.
A tragic accident claimed a life in Simpson County. A man was hit and killed by a train. It happened near Highway 149 inside the Magee city limits just after 4 p.m. Friday afternoon. Simpson County Coroner
A picture on WLBT's Facebook page posted by commenters is creating a stir online and in the community. The picture is of a effigy of President Barack Obama, hanging outside a gas station.
A picture on WLBT's Facebook page posted by commenter's is creating a stir online and in the community. The picture is of a effigy of President Barack Obama, hanging outside a gas station. Those posting
Jackson police are investigating a Saturday afternoon shooting in downtown. Officers have not released any details about the incident. It happened about 4:30 PM on Hudson Street, just off Roach Street.
A Chinese man who divorced his wife, then sued her for being ugly has made internet headlines across the world after winning the suit.
A Chinese man who divorced his wife, then sued her for being ugly has made internet headlines across the world.
A Yazoo City man is being detained by the Humphreys County Sheriff's Department after two people reported being pulled over by someone who did not appear to be a law enforcement officer.
A Mercury Grand Marquis with blue lights, some of them painted blue, and glued on antennas is now in the hands of investigators.
They believe it could be the same vehicle involved in a police impersonation investigation that began about 9 p.m. on Wednesday.
Officers say a man saw blue lights flashing behind him and pulled over on Highway 149, near Silver City.
"Once he pulled over, he saw the suspect get out of the car and come to the passenger side of the vehicle, like he had his weapon out. So, immediately he saw that and took off," says Yazoo County Sheriff Jacob Sheriff.
The impersonator gave chase but the motorist fought back.
"As they was going down the road where he speeded up to probably 120 miles per hour, he (the victim) stated, and fired a round out of the car."
A short time later, a female also reported being pulled over in the same area by a similar car.
Thursday morning, Yazoo County deputies were able to stop the car, driven James Lucas, 45. They identified it by an upside down state of Mississippi tag on the front.
It matched the same description given by Humphreys County investigators. Humphreys County wouldn't say if Lucas is the person being questioned in the investigation, but deputies think the correct suspect is in custody.
"We are doing the investigation with M.B.I. to continue this, to see if he is our man, to make sure that we have the right guy," explains Humphreys County Investigator Sam Dobbins.
According Yazoo County Sheriff Jacob Sheriff, a search of Lucas' girlfriend's Yazoo City home revealed fake handguns, police badges, and handcuffs.
Lucus was at one time a suspect in two separate investigations of impersonating a police officer.
If you're pulled over by an unmarked vehicle and don't feel safe, officers have some advice.
"Continue to a safe place and dial 911 or *MHP and continue to a safe place where they are comfortable in identifying them as being a law enforcement officer," says Sheriff.
Investigators believe the Grand Marquis is a retired patrol car and was bought at an auction.
It's unclear if a second person was involved in the Humphreys County investigation.
Deputies are also trying to determine if this police impersonation investigation is tied to two deadly police impersonation shootings in north Mississippi.
Copyright 2012 WLBT. All rights reserved. ||||| By: |
Published: May 17, 2012
A police impersonator takes fire from a man he stopped in Humphreys County. This all started around 9pm last night on Highway 149 near Silver City. We're told the driver being pulled over noticed the man did not appear to be an officer, that's when he took off and the impersonator followed. The driver then opened fire through his window at the police impersonator. As we first reported on News Channel 12 at Noon, a car matching the description from last night was pulled over in Yazoo City. The blue Mercury Marquis, and the man behind the wheel, are both in Humphreys County Sheriff's Department custody. Authorities are also investigating another incident in Humphreys County, 10 to 15 minutes after the police impersonator was shot at. Deputies say someone pulled over a woman, but she took off because the man who go out of the car looked suspicious. Police are investigating if there is any connection to the fatal highway shootings in Northern Mississippi. We will continue to bring you any updates as we get them. | – Police in Mississippi have taken into a custody a man suspected of posing as a police officer in the wake of two fatal shootings, report WLBT3 and WJTV12 of Jackson. Police detained a 45-year-old Yazoo City man after two more motorists reported being pulled over last night. Both drivers got suspicious and drove off before the man got to their vehicle. One noted an upside down state flag on the suspect's vanity plate, and police later spotted the vehicle and took James Lucas into custody. He has not been charged. One bizarre twist: One of the witnesses said the suspect got out of his car with a gun in his hand, which prompted the witness to drive off. The other man pursued him, however, and the witness then pulled out his own gun and fired at the pursuing car. He apparently didn't hit the driver, but he did manage to escape and give police the information about the license plate. Police found fake badges and handcuffs where the man was staying, notes WLBT. |
CLOSE Fashion model Hanne Gaby Odiele is teaming up with the non-profit organization, InterACT Advocates for Intersex Youth. Odiele recently revealed that she is intersex and is hoping to give a voice to people who are often in the shadows. USA TODAY NETWORK
Hanne Gaby Odiele attends the 2015 CFDA Fashion Awards at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center on June 1, 2015, in New York. (Photo: Larry Busacca, Getty Images)
Hanne Gaby Odiele is a fearless fashion star known for putting herself out there in a bold and striking take on street style.
Now, the veteran of the runway and city sidewalks is revealing a more intimate piece of herself: Odiele is intersex.
“It is very important to me in my life right now to break the taboo,” says the 29-year-old supermodel from Kortrijk, Belgium, in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY.
“At this point, in this day and age, it should be perfectly all right to talk about this,” says Odiele, one of the first high-profile people to disclose her intersex status and share her story.
Intersex individuals are born with sex characteristics such as genitals or chromosomes that do not fit the typical definitions of male or female. Up to 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits, according to the United Nations — a figure roughly equivalent to the number of redheads.
Beyond giving a voice to people who are often in the shadows, Odiele is making this disclosure to spotlight medical procedures intersex children undergo without their consent in a misguided effort to make a child appear more typically male or female. “I am proud to be intersex,” she says, “but very angry that these surgeries are still happening.”
More coverage:What it means to be intersex and how common is it?
Odiele was one of those children. She was born with an intersex trait known as Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) in which a woman has XY chromosomes more typically found in men. She also had internal, undescended testes, and her parents were told that if she did not have her testicles removed, “I might develop cancer and I would not develop as a normal, female girl,” she says.
At 10, she had surgery to remove her testes, an experience she could barely process at the time. “I knew at one point after the surgery I could not have kids, I was not having my period. I knew something was wrong with me.”
At 18, Odiele — whose modeling career took root when she was discovered a year earlier at a music festival in Belgium — underwent an equally distressing procedure in the form of vaginal reconstructive surgery.
“It’s not that big of a deal being intersex,” she says. But the anguish of the two surgeries is an issue for her that is still troubling today. “If they were just honest from the beginning... It became a trauma because of what they did.”
AWARENESS AND OUTRAGE
Kimberly Zieselman, executive director of interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth, says Odiele will be a powerful champion for the intersex community and will help thrust medical procedures that try to “fix” intersex kids into the harsh focus they deserve.
Zieselman says Odiele will partner with her advocacy group. “I think her speaking out, having her voice added to the mix is going to culturally raise awareness in the mainstream,” she says, noting that groups such as the U.N. and the World Health Organization already condemn these surgeries as human rights violations. It will “help in raising awareness – and raising outrage.”
Zieselman, now 50, had an experience as searing as Odiele’s. At 15, a reproductive oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital told her parents she had a partially formed uterus and ovaries that needed to be removed so they would not become cancerous. Her parents consented.
When the married mother of adopted twin girls was 40 and struggling with a hernia problem, she obtained her medical records. Zieselman was stunned to find the surgery she had as a teen removed internal, undescended testes. Zieselman never had a uterus, ovaries — or cancer; she was intersex.
“My story quite frankly is not unique,” says Zieselman, whose group’s No. 1 priority is ending irreversible procedures. “Hundreds of women have a similar story. Hiding the truth conjures up feeling like a freak.”
A fear of non-binary bodies — not a pressing medical need — is often what drives surgical interventions on intersex children, says Sue Stred, a professor of pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University. When a newborn’s genitals do not appear “typical,” parents can be compelled to have their child undergo cosmetic surgery to appear more ordinary.
As for concerns about cancer, Stred says there is not “good, long-term data” on whether someone with a condition such as AIS may develop cancer if testicles are not removed. “The possible percentage chance of cancer is vastly overwrought,” says Stred, who specializes in pediatric endocrinology.
LIFELONG REPERCUSSIONS
The consequence of removing gonads is a lifelong dependence on hormone replacement medications, Stred says, and permanent infertility. Other physical issues are reduced sexual sensations, urinary tract infections and incontinence.
The psychological repercussions of these medical procedures can also be devastating, Stred says. “There is a sense of betrayal when teens or young adults find out. Some individuals leave medical care altogether because they are so angry at what physicians did to them before they were the age of consent.”
And there is tremendous resentment of parents, she says. Kids think “something was done to me; you felt I wasn’t perfect; I had to be fixed.”
Awareness of intersex issues is slowly evolving, says Zieselman, who notes that many people don't even know what intersex means. Being intersex relates to biological sex characteristics. It is not the same as transgender: someone whose gender identity — how they feel inside — does not correspond with their birth sex. An intersex individual can be straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual.
“It’s amazing to me just in the last two years to see the difference in how many intersex young people are willing and comfortable to speak out at earlier ages. It is largely thanks to the LGBT movement ahead of us,” Zieselman says.
It is that group that may also carve a path on the issue of unneeded surgeries, she says. The transgender community “is doing it right,” she says. “No surgical treatment until (individuals) have psychological support. That’s a model we can use.”
Above all, Stred says there should be no surgery until an intersex child is at an age of consent and can weigh the benefits and risks. “You wouldn’t do a nose job on a 7-year-old,” she says.
A PASSIONATE VOICE
When Odiele’s career was at the starting gate in 2006, she was slammed by a car that ran a red light on the streets of New York, leaving her with two broken legs and multiple fractures. After several surgeries and physical therapy, she was back on the catwalk — just 10 months later.
She says the experience grounded her in her career choice and “gave me something to fight for.”
Now she is hoping to take that fighting spirit to the next level by being a passionate advocate for intersex youth. “It is an important part of my life to talk about this,” says Odiele, whose story will also appear in the issue of Vogue magazine that hits newsstands Wednesday.
Odiele has been more open about her status in the past year with close friends and trusted associates — particularly during chats about periods or having babies — but this is her first public announcement. She says she doesn't fear any backlash from colleagues in the fashion industry. "They will see me as they have before," she says. "Nothing should change."
Today Odiele loves to lounge in her husband’s clothes as her “go-to day to day” just as much as getting “glammed up.” She says being intersex has given her a forward-thinking perspective on fashion. “I didn’t have to fit into certain roles,” she says. “I was able to kind of have a sense of being more of an individual.”
Her husband, model John Swiatek, says he is “incredibly proud and happy” his wife is speaking out. “I am very impressed with her decision to advocate for intersex children in order to give them an opportunity to make up their own minds about their bodies, unlike the lack of options and information Hanne and her family (and many others) were given,” he says.
Last summer, the fashion star who has been in front of cameras for the industry’s A-list photographers and poses for brands from Dior to Alexander Wang, married Swiatek in an outdoor bash infused with countryside cool in upstate New York.
She wore a hooded cape draping a sheer lace dress, with cargo pants and a bra top peeking through. Bridesmaids strolled barefoot through fields in shimmering lavender slip dresses.
It was trademark Odiele.
Odiele, who calls her innovative style “just being myself; no rules,” has the same message for intersex youth today: “You can be whoever you want. It doesn’t matter.”
Follow Miller on Twitter @susmiller
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jPBxiH ||||| CLOSE At least 1 in 5,000 U.S. babies are born each year with intersex conditions _ ambiguous genitals because of genetic glitches or hormone problems. Secrecy and surgery are common. But some doctors and activists are trying to change things. (April 17) AP
Hanne Gaby Odiele attends the 2015 CFDA Fashion Awards at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center on June 1, 2015, in New York. (Photo: Larry Busacca, Getty Images)
Model Hanne Gaby Odiele is one of the first high-profile people to disclose that she is intersex.
The 29-year-old supermodel from Kortrijk, Belgium, said she is speaking out because she wants to "break the taboo" surrounding intersex people.
But what does it mean to be intersex? Here's a quick explainer:
Intersex individuals are born with sex characteristics such as genitals or chromosomes that do not fit the typical definitions of male or female.
"A girl may be born with a noticeably large clitoris, or lacking a vaginal opening, or a boy may be born with a notably small penis, or with a scrotum that is divided so that it has formed more like labia. Or a person may be born with mosaic genetics, so that some of her cells have XX chromosomes and some of them have XY," according to the Intersex Society of North America.
While intersex can be discovered at birth, some people may not realize they are intersex until later in life when they reach puberty or find they are infertile, according to the Intersex Society of North America.
How common is intersex?
Up to 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits, according to the United Nations — a figure roughly equivalent to the number of redheads.
What happens to children that are born intersex?
People born intersex may go through surgical procedures to make their genitals appear more male or female.
Odiele was born with an intersex trait known as Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) in which a woman has XY chromosomes more typically found in men. She also had internal, undescended testes, and her parents were told that if she did not have her testicles removed, “I might develop cancer and I would not develop as a normal, female girl,” she says.
At 10, she had surgery to remove her testes, an experience she could barely process at the time. “I knew at one point after the surgery I could not have kids, I was not having my period. I knew something was wrong with me.”
Are intersex people identified as male or female on their birth certificates?
In December, 55-year-old Sara Kelly Keenan received what is believed to be the first intersex birth certificate in the U.S., NBC reported. Keenan was born in New York City with male genes, a mix of male and female reproductive organs and female genitalia, according to the news outlet.
She was classified as a male for three weeks and then issued a female birth certificate and was unaware she was intersex until adulthood.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2kj2Hez ||||| Noi Liang, an intersex woman who works part-time as a patient advocate at Children's Hospital Colorado, stands for a photo at the medical center in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo., on Friday, July... (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — Children whose sexual characteristics don't neatly align with the norm have for decades faced surgery to rearrange their anatomy to resemble that of more typical boys and girls — long before they were old enough to have a say in the decision.
But now the practice is under assault, as never before. The American Medical Association is considering a proposal discouraging it. Three former U.S. surgeons general say it's unjustified. And on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch and InterACT a group advocating for intersex youth — are releasing a detailed report assailing the practice and urging Congress to ban it.
"The results are often catastrophic," says the report, asserting that the surgeries "can inflict irreversible physical and psychological harm."
"The pressure to fit in and live a 'normal' life is real," said Kyle Knight, a Human Rights Watch researcher who wrote the report. "But there is no evidence that surgery delivers on the promise of making that easier."
One of multiple reasons for the concern: Some intersex children may undergo surgery aimed at assigning them as male or female, yet grow up to identify as the other sex — a potentially traumatic situation.
Intersex is an umbrella term encompassing various conditions in which internal sex organs and external genitalia develop differently than for a typical boy or girl. Experts say roughly one of every 2,000 newborns has so-called differences of sex development that might prompt a doctor's recommendation for surgery or other medical intervention.
Internationally, there's been vocal opposition to such surgeries. In 2015, they were condemned by several United Nations agencies, and Malta became the first country to ban them.
Major U.S. medical associations haven't gone that far, but the Human Rights Watch/InterACT report urges them to toughen their policies. The American Academy of Pediatrics says it's reviewing the issue, and wants parents to understand the risks and benefits of any course of action. The AMA's Board of Trustees is proposing a new policy statement urging doctors to defer intersex surgery on infants and young children "except when life-threatening circumstances require emergency intervention."
Adding to the momentum was a statement in June from former surgeons general Joycelyn Elders, David Satcher and Richard Carmona, who said the surgery "is not justified absent a need to ensure physical functioning," they wrote. "We hope that professionals and parents who face this difficult decision will heed the growing consensus that the practice should stop."
There are no comprehensive statistics on intersex surgeries. The new report says most of the 21 health professionals who were interviewed suggested that medically unnecessary surgeries were becoming less common, but none said their clinic had stopped doing them altogether.
Even as the new report was being compiled, it came under fire from the CARES Foundation , which advocates on behalf of families with children born with abnormal genitalia due to a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia, or CAH.
Girls with this condition sometimes undergo reconstructive surgery, often to reduce the size of the clitoris. The foundation, which has more than 20 physicians as advisers, asserted that the new report represents an unwarranted attempt to eliminate that option.
"The choices available to parents and patients should not be limited," the foundation said. "Medical decisions are difficult enough for parents without having to contend with the moral and philosophical agendas of certain movements."
The new report includes input from an unidentified 20-year-old woman with CAH who said she was glad her parents made her "look like all the other girls" her age when she was growing up.
However, Kyle Knight said there's no evidence that this type of abnormal genitalia poses a health threat.
"There are limits to what parents can do to their kids," he said. "Medically unnecessary irreversible surgery that carries a risk of lifelong harm should be one of those things."
For families with intersex children, one welcome development has been the formation of specialized teams at some hospitals that address a wide range of physical and psychological concerns.
Among the acclaimed programs is the SOAR Clinic, created in 2012 at Children's Hospital Colorado near Denver. Its team — which includes specialists in urology, genetics, psychology and other fields — develops an individualized treatment plan for each family, and encourages parents to participate in decision-making.
The issue of surgery for infants and young children is one of the toughest facing the team.
"These are really difficult, challenging decisions," said Dr. Jennifer Barker, who specializes in hormonal and glandular complications affecting children. "We've seen families decide to move forward to surgery, and some who choose not to."
Barker guessed that most of the team's physicians would feel unduly restricted by a ban, even as early surgery becomes less common.
The clinic deploys intersex people as patient advocates who can offer support based on personal experience. The most active volunteer is 40-year-old Noi Liang.
At birth, Liang appeared to be a normal baby girl. As she grew older, doctors discovered that — because of a rare chromosome condition — she lacked a uterus, and had internal testes rather than ovaries. When she was a teenager, doctors removed the testes, telling her they were removing potentially cancerous ovaries. Not until her early 30s did she discover the truth.
As a patient advocate, she sees parents worrying whether their children will be accepted by their peers.
"Isolation is a big piece of what they struggle with — they feel like there's no one else to talk to," Liang said. "They say it gives them a feeling of relief to speak with someone like me who more fully understands what they and their children are going through."
Several parents of intersex children have become activists, advocating against early surgery. Among them is Dr. Arlene Baratz, a Pittsburgh-based radiologist with two adult daughters born with the same condition as Liang.
"If there is a secret to raising healthy children," Baratz contends, "it is to accept and focus on what they are, instead of what they're not."
___
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A woman told she was genetically a man with no reproductive organs when she was 19 has given birth to twin girls.
Hayley Haynes, 28, had miracle babies Avery and Darcey after she grew a womb thanks to hormone therapy.
Gazing lovingly at the baby in her arms, Hayley can’t believe that all her dreams have come true.
On the day of that devastating diagnosis she recalls staring at herself in the mirror and struggling to understand.
She looked like a woman but was told she would never have children as she had no womb, ovaries or fallopian tubes.
After growing up dreaming of becoming a mum it was a devastating blow.
But now, nine years on, she has given birth to her twins after IVF treatment using an egg donor.
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She and husband Sam, both 28, are overjoyed to become parents, but it has been a long hard road.
Hayley, from Bedford, had no idea she was different growing up. But at 19 she still had not started her periods despite going through other signs of puberty.
After months of hospital trips and blood tests, specialists told her she had been born with XY chromosomes, meaning she was genetically male.
(Image: SWNS)
She had no reproductive organs thanks to a condition called androgen insensitivity syndrome.
She says: “When they told me I had no womb I was so confused I felt sick. My biggest fear was never having children.
"Suddenly a huge piece of my life was missing. I felt like half a woman and was embarrassed. How I was going to tell a guy I was genetically male when I started dating?”
One man she could tell was her friend Sam. They had been close since 16 and he comforted her throughout her ordeal.
Sam recalls: “She told me no man would want her. I told her that any man worth having would. At the time I said it as a friend – it’s quite romantic that man turned out to be me.”
A ray of hope came in 2007 when a new specialist at Royal Derby Hospital found a tiny womb missed on previous scans.
“It was only a few millimetres, but it was a start,” says Hayley. “He was optimistic it would grow. I still couldn’t conceive naturally but I could have the option of IVF.”
The first step was a course of hormone tablets to give her the right levels of progesterone and oestrogen. They would stop her suffering osteoporosis and create an environment where her womb could grow.
(Image: SWNS)
Meanwhile, Hayley and Sam’s friendship blossomed and after she spent her 22nd birthday with him in London, he asked her to be his girlfriend.
She says: “He’s been my confidant from day one and so supportive. I was worried any man would run a mile.
“But with Sam I felt accepted and loved for who I was. But we still didn’t know if we would ever have children.
“We both wanted a family, but we just had to wait and see if the treatment worked.”
They got their answer in 2011 when Hayley was told her womb was ready for IVF.
But then came a bitter blow when their local NHS trust refused to fund free IVF even though guidelines said it should.
Hayley says: “First I found I couldn’t have children, then I was told I could. Now they were denying us the help we needed.
“Although adopting was an option, we wanted the baby to be as close to biologically ours as possible by using an anonymous egg donor and Sam’s sperm.”
(Image: SWNS)
Determined not to give up, they paid £10,500 – more than half their savings – for IVF treatment at a clinic in Cyprus, plus flights. And last April they flew 2,000 miles to pursue their dream.
Hayley recalls: “I was so nervous. We only had one shot and couldn’t afford to go through it all again. I desperately wanted to be a mother and knew if there were no viable eggs or the implantation wasn’t successful I’d be distraught.
“Of the 13 eggs harvested only two were viable. After they were implanted I spent the rest of our 10 days resting.”
Doctors told Hayley there was a 60% chance she would get pregnant and she should wait two weeks before taking a test. But her excitement got the better of her after she started feeling faint and she took one after 10 days.
“I was so nervous I was shaking from head to toe,” she says. “I peered at the test and it said positive. I couldn’t contain my happiness.
"I was jumping up and down and screaming, but Sam kept his cool and made sure we took another test before we celebrated.”
When Hayley went for her six-week scan it was a shock to discover both eggs had taken and she was expecting non-identical twins.
“I couldn’t believe it,” says Hayley. “I freaked out, but I was over the moon at the same time. I had the chance to have a complete family.”
Sam adds: “I felt numb with excitement. It was two for the price of one.”
(Image: Daily Mirror)
The first 12 weeks were nerve-racking because there was still a chance she could miscarry.
Hayley says: “One day I forgot to take my tablets. I was in floods of tears thinking I’d messed everything up.”
But everything went well and in December her doctors decided to induce her two weeks early. And on Christmas Eve she gave birth naturally to Avery, at 5lbs 3oz, and Darcey, 4lbs 6oz. Although they were premature, the girls were healthy.
Hayley says: “Becoming a mother was the single most amazing moment of my life. When I held the babies in my arms for the first time I was overwhelmed.
"I had spent nine years coming to terms with the fact this might never happen, but in that moment all the pain just washed away.
"Darcey and Avery are the most beautiful little girls in the world. Even now, I can’t separate Sam from the girls because he loves them so much.
“We’ve spent so much on these babies. It’s not just our wallets that are empty. We are emotionally exhausted.
“But I’d do it again in a heartbeat for one cuddle with my girls.”
Dr Geetha Venkat, of Harley Street Fertility Clinic, London, described the case as “amazing”.
She explained: “Normally in nature the female hormone oestrogen will help grow the womb.
“She’s lacking in the hormone, so they gave it to her with the HRT. She’s lucky she was born with the womb remnants.
“Technology has made this possible. It really is an amazing story.” ||||| CLOSE Intersex individuals are born with sex characteristics that don't match what's traditionally classified as male or female. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
Doctors and parents are doing irreversible harm solely due to discomfort with difference. We are erased before we can even tell them who we are.
Kimberly Mascott Zieselman, months after her intersex surgery, in Concord, Mass., in 1983. (Photo: Family photo)
I was born with typically “male” XY chromosomes and internal testes instead of ovaries and a uterus, but my body developed to appear typically female.
My intersex condition was invisible until I reached puberty and failed to menstruate like other girls. On the advice of doctors at a major hospital, my parents agreed that I should have surgery to remove my healthy gonads, without my knowledge or consent.
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My natural hormone production ceased, and I was forced onto hormone replacement therapy for the rest of my life. I was just 15. Doctors also recommended to my parents that I receive invasive surgery to create a more “typically” sized vagina — thankfully, my parents refused. I didn’t find out about any of this until I was 41 years old.
Intersex people like me — up to 1.7% of the population — are born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female. I have androgen insensitivity syndrome. Because my body was resistant to androgens, including testosterone, in the womb, my natural hormones automatically converted into estrogen through a process called aromatization.
Intersex people have been the last bastion of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” with doctors commonly telling parents for many years that the best thing they could do for their children was to have surgery done, even when they are infants, so they can grow up “normal.”
These and other surgeries have been commonly performed on intersex children in the USA since the 1960s. But in the 1990s, intersex adults began speaking out against these non-consensual and medically unnecessary procedures because of their lifelong physical and psychological consequences.
Despite decades of controversy over the procedures, doctors continue to operate on children’s gonads, internal sex organs and genitals when the kids are too young to participate in the decision — even though the surgeries are dangerous and could be safely deferred. It’s rare that urgent health considerations require immediate surgical intervention. The results of these cosmetic surgeries are often catastrophic and the supposed benefits largely unproven.
As executive director of interACT, the nation’s only organization dedicated exclusively to protecting the legal and human rights of intersex youth, I am thrilled that since interACT’s founding in 2006, we have seen progress from medical associations — but not enough, and not nearly quickly enough.
It’s not time for more data collection or dialogue; it’s time for these surgeries to stop.
I know firsthand the devastating impact they can have, not just on our bodies but on our souls. We are erased before we can even tell our doctors who we are. Every human rights organization that has considered this practice has condemned it, some even to the point of recognizing it as akin to torture.
We know that most physicians want to do the right thing for their patients, just as parents want to do the right thing for their children. The right thing, unequivocally, is to wait until an intersex person can participate in these life-altering decisions. The right thing is to afford them the same dignity and autonomy that is due to everyone — and refrain from inflicting irreversible harm solely because of a discomfort with difference.
The few doctors who refuse to bring their practices in line with human rights standards tell us there is a silent majority of patients who are happy they had their childhood surgeries, but they have been unable to produce those happy patients for us to talk to. We do hear from people who are extremely grateful they were spared surgery, as well as parents of intersex children who are growing up just fine without medical intervention.
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Some doctors have dismissed us as “angry activists,” but our position has support from the United Nations, the World Health Organization, Amnesty International, the State Department, every majorLGBTQ rights organization in the United States, three former U.S. surgeons general and almost every intersex organization in the world. Now, interACT and Human Rights Watch have published a new report echoing those calls for a ban.
These institutions are not just “angry activists.” They are principled human rights defenders drawing on data, laws and the medical ethics concept of “do no harm.”
Most important, intersex children and adults are telling us that they want the freedom to make decisions about their own lives and bodies.
Working with intersex youth every day, I can tell you these kids are perfect as they are — and they are telling us that their bodies aren't shameful and don’t need to be “fixed.”
Kimberly Mascott Zieselman is executive director of interACT, an organization that advocates for intersex youth.
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to [email protected].
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wGVyuW | – She's used to putting herself on display, but Belgian model Hanne Gaby Odiele exposed herself in a different way on Monday. The 29-year-old sat with USA Today and revealed something that "should be perfectly all right to talk about ... in this day and age": Odiele is intersex, having been born with undescended testes and Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, meaning she has XY chromosomes. Odiele, whom Vogue refers to as an Alexander Wang staple, says being intersex is "not that big of a deal," but she can't say the same for the two surgeries she has undergone, one at age 10 to remove those testes, which doctors told her parents could lead to cancer. USA Today calls her "one of the first high-profile people" to reveal intersex traits, which an LGBT initiative associated with the UN Human Rights Office estimates are present in 0.05% to 1.7% of people. (The Intersex Society of North America digs into the frequency question in a much more detailed way.) Now married to fellow model John Swiatek, Odiele says she's "very angry that these surgeries are still happening." A professor of pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University tells the paper parents are often pressured into agreeing to subject their intersex kids to surgery when there is no medical necessity, but rather to produce more "normal" children. Odiele's story will appear in the next issue of Vogue; she plans to work with the interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth. |
The sex of human and all mammalian babies may be determined by a simple modification of a virus that insinuated itself into the mammalian genome as recently as 1.5 million years ago, a new Yale University-led study has found.
“Basically, these viruses appear to allow the mammalian genome to continuously evolve, but they can also bring instability,” said Andrew Xiao of the Department of Genetics and Yale Stem Cell Center, senior author of the paper published online March 30 in the journal Nature. “Aside from the embryo, the only other places people have found this virus active is in tumors and neurons.”
Xiao and the Yale team discovered a novel mechanism by which the early embryo turns off this virus on the X chromosome, which ultimately determines the sex of an organism. If the level of this molecular marker is normal, X chromosomes remain active, and females and males will be born at an equal ratio. If this marker is overrepresented, X chromosomes will be silenced, and males will be born twice as often as females.
“Why mammalian sex ratios are determined by a remnant of ancient virus is a fascinating question,” Xiao said.
Tens of millions of years ago viruses invaded genomes and duplicated themselves within the DNA of their hosts. Xiao estimated that more than 40% of the human genome is made up of such remnants of viral duplications. In most cases, these remnants remain inactive, but recently scientists have discovered they sometimes take on surprising roles in developing embryos and may even push mammalian evolution. Researchers found that the virus active in the mouse genome that influences sex ratios is relatively recent — in evolutionary terms — and is enriched on the X chromosome.
The Yale-led team found the mechanism that disables the virus. The newly discovered modification in mammals is a surprising expansion of the epigenetic toolbox, say the researchers. Epigenetics modulates gene expression during development without actually altering the sequences of genes. In the new marker, a methyl bond is added to adenine — one of the four nucleotides that comprise base pairs in DNA — allowing it to silence genes. For decades, most researchers assumed that a modification of the nucleotide cytosine was the only form of gene silencing in mammals.
Xiao said it is possible that this mechanism might be used to suppress cancer, which has been known to hijack the same virus to spread.
He also noted in other organisms, such as C elegans and the fruit fly Drosophila, this mechanism plays an entirely opposite role and activates genes, not suppresses them.
“Evolution often uses the same piece but for different purposes and that appears to be the case here,” Xiao said.
Tao P. Wu of Yale is the lead author of the study.
Pacific Biosciences of Menlo Park provided the technology used in the discovery.
Primary funding for the research was provided by the National Institutes of Health. ||||| It's a boy! Or maybe it's a girl, but either way, new research suggests that the sex of mouse babies, and perhaps the sex of human babies, may be influenced by a newfound way to deactivate ancient viral genes that have been embedded in mammal genomes for more than a million years.
In the research, the scientists looked at viral DNA that is active in the mouse genome. Viral DNA can become part of an animal's genome when a kind of virus called a retrovirus infects a cell, and slips its genes into the DNA of host cells. (The most notorious retrovirus is HIV, the virus behind AIDS.)
If a retrovirus infects a sperm or egg cell — and that sperm or egg is involved in fertilization and becomes part of a person — all of the person's cells will have the viral DNA, and they will pass it on to their descendants. Hence, people and animals today carry in their cells the genetic remnants of viruses that invaded the genomes of their ancestors.
In fact, more than 40 percent of the human genome may be composed of viral "leftovers," said Andrew Xiao, the senior author of the new study and a molecular biologist at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
Most viral remnants are inactive. But some viral DNA "can interfere with development or health," Xiao told Live Science. And it could also accelerate mammalian evolution, he said. For example, if an organism faces changes in the climate or its food source, viral DNA may introduce variations that help the organism adapt to the change.
In the new study, the scientists found high levels of a viral remnant on the mouse X chromosome, which helps determine the sex of mice. If this viral DNA is active, X chromosomes stay active, and females and males are born at an equal ratio. However, if this viral material is silenced, X chromosomes will get deactivated, and males will be born twice as often as females, according to the findings, published in the March 31 issue of the journal Nature.
Although it remains uncertain whether a similar mechanism influences human sex ratios, the human X chromosome also contains viral material, Xiao said. [The 9 Deadliest Viruses on Earth]
The researchers also discovered how the mouse cells deactivate the viral genetic material in order to shut down the X chromosome. Cells commonly deactivate genetic material by attaching a compound known as a methyl group to the DNA. This methyl "tag" influences genetic activity without changing the genetic sequence itself. The gene is shut down, while the sequence of A, T, G and C nucleotides remains intact.
But Xiao and his colleagues found that mouse embryo cells add a methyl tag to the nucleotide A, or adenine, to silence the viral genes. For decades, scientists thought the only way to silence a gene in mammals was to tag a C nucleotide, or cytosine.
Although scientists knew for a long time that single-celled organisms could tag the A nucleotide, "this is the first time it's been seen in mammals," said Gerd Pfeifer, a molecular biologist at the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who did not take part in this research.
Aside from helping determine the sex of offspring, the viral material the researchers studied has been shown to potentially help tumor cells grow, and to be active in the brain, Xiao said. [7 Diseases You Can Learn About from a Genetic Test]
The researchers are still investigating which enzyme tags the A nucleotides. "We also want to find out how this mechanism might be involved in human health," Xiao said.
This new work revealed that this tagging of adenine is very rare in the mouse genome, only affecting "about seven out of every million adenines," Pfeifer said. Future research should further investigate whether this tagging is more common in some tissues than in others, Pfeifer added.
Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science. ||||| NEW HAVEN, Conn., March 31 (UPI) -- Over the course of human evolution, the human genome has picked up foreign fragments of DNA, mostly from ancient viruses.
The majority of those fragments are inactive, but a few serve novel purposes -- like determining the sex of a developing embryo.
Yale researchers believe an ancient viral DNA strand -- incorporated into the mammalian genome as recently as 1.5 million years ago -- plays a key role in turning off the X chromosome.
Scientists at Yale University determined that some embryos turn off the virus on the X chromosome, affecting sex ratios, and discovered the mechanism by which they do it. In the epigenetic marker they found, a methyl bond is added to adenine, one of the four nucleotides that form DNA base pairs, producing a gene-silencing ability.
Higher levels of the marker turn off the virus, silencing X chromosome expression, and males are born at a ratio of 2-to-1. When the molecular marker is normal, males and females are born in equal numbers
"Why mammalian sex ratios are determined by a remnant of ancient virus is a fascinating question," Andrew Xiao, a geneticist at the Yale Stem Cell Center, said in a news release.
Xiao is the senior author of a new paper on the discovery, published this week in the journal Nature.
Until recently, researchers believed mammals could suppress gene expression via manipulation of nucleotide cytosine.
Xiao and his colleagues think the newly discovered mechanism may be used to suppress cancer, as previous studies suggest cancer can hijack the virus in an attempt to spread.
"Aside from the embryo, the only other places people have found this virus active is in tumors and neurons," Xiao said. | – The sex of baby mice—and quite likely baby humans—is determined by a virus that inserted itself into the mammalian genome 1.5 million years ago, Live Science reports. Yale researchers published their surprising findings on March 30 in Nature. According to a press release, more than 40% of the human genome is comprised of remnants from viruses that invaded it millions of years ago. Researchers found some of that viral material on mice X chromosomes—the chromosomes that determine the sex of embryos. As long as that viral remnant is active, males and females are born at equal rates. But if the viral remnant is turned off, which UPI reports happens in some embryos, males are born at twice the rate of females. While it's unclear if the same process holds for humans, the human X chromosome contains the same viral material as its mouse counterpart. What's more, researchers believe the method by which mice embryos turn off the viral remnant could be used to keep cancer from spreading. That's because the same viral material is also found in tumors and could be helping them grow. But really they're still trying to figure this whole thing out. "Why mammalian sex ratios are determined by a remnant of ancient virus is a fascinating question," says esearcher Andrew Xiao. (Thanks to genetics, girls in this town become boys at puberty.) |
CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Natalie DiBlasio hosts NewsBreak covering a new record. Three men drove from New York to L.A. in just 28 hours and 50 minutes. USA TODAY
Three men have set a new record. Driving across the United States – from New York to Los Angeles - in 28 hours and 50 minutes. (Photo: http://edbolian.com/)
Twenty-eight hours and 50 minutes. That's how long it took three men to drive across the United States, from New York City to Los Angeles, smashing the record.
The previous record, set in 2006, was 31 hours and 4 minutes, Jalopnik, an auto news site, reported.
That's 2,813 miles. According to a Google maps search, that should take 42 hours.
Ed Bolian, a 27-year-old Lamborghini dealer from Atlanta, had been planning the trip since 2009. He carefully selected a car, the Mercedes CL 55 , and filled it with technology to outsmart cops, outrun traffic and deal with the weather.
Bolian also added two 22-gallon auxiliary fuel drums to the car's existing 23-gallon tank. That weighs nearly 400 pounds.
"I've wanted to break the record since I was 18 years old," Bolian told Jalopnik.
The car's max speed was 158 mph with a moving average of 100 mph and an overall average of 98 mph, including 46 minutes of stop time.
"Our goal with this project was to pay tribute to what we consider to be one of the coolest and most interesting chapters of American automotive history," Bolian said on his website. "I do not advise that anyone attempt this or break the law in any way. This type of activity could easily have resulted in our death, imprisonment, or led to a litany of other consequences.
Oh, there was also a bedpan, just to avoid any unnecessary stops.
Twitter: Follow reporter Natalie DiBlasio @ndiblasio
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1bJ4jUn ||||| He's a tall, lanky Southerner with a penchant for cars, and, of all things, lizards. He has a polite face and an eager-to-please demeanor. His teaches Sunday school with his wife. Ed Bolian is the kind of guy you might meet on an airplane and forget before you picked up your bags – with one exception: he just became the fastest man ever to drive across the United States.
That's right: Alex Roy's familiar cross-country driving record, set in his now-famous LeMans Blue 2000 BMW M5 during the fall of 2006, no longer stands. It was allegedly broken by a three-man team consisting of Ed, a co-driver, and a passenger, in a 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG.
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But we'll get to all that.
First, we should address the term "broken." When I think of a record that's been "broken," I imagine beating something by a second, or a minute, or maybe a few RBIs. If what Ed says is true, the record wasn't broken: it was shattered. In 2006, Alex and company completed the transcontinental journey in 31 hours and 4 minutes. Two weeks ago, Ed and his crew say they managed to do the deed in 28 hours and 50 minutes. Google says it takes 40 and a half.
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Another driver, who wishes to remain anonymous, attempted the same journey a week prior and could only muster a time of 31 hours and 17 minutes. When he finished the run, he sent a text message to Alex Roy. It said only: "Long live the King."
So who is this new guy claiming the throne?
Meet Ed
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I first met Ed a few years ago in his official capacity as the sales director for Lamborghini of Atlanta. Over time, he's helped me look for various wacky used cars – and even though I never bought one from him, he's always addressed me with the same friendly, upbeat, and cheerful attitude as he did the first time we met. That was exactly his demeanor when we sat down earlier this week to discuss his record-setting run – only this time, he may have been a little more cheerful.
"I suppose congratulations are in order," I said.
"Thank you very much," Ed replied.
Some History
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Before we get into Ed's run, let's take a brief run through some transcontinental record history and the interesting characters who attempt to race the sun from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
All of this started in 1933 when a crazy man from Indiana named Edwin "Cannonball" Baker drove from New York to Los Angeles in 53 hours and 30 minutes in some car called the Blue Streak. No one knows Baker's motivation for the run, but his 50 mph average was highly impressive, considering the interstate system was not yet built. The record went unbeaten for 40 years.
In the 1970s, noted auto racer and Car and Driver contributor Brock Yates conceived the "Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash" – also called the Cannonball Run – to protest highway speed limits. I won't bore you with the details, but the record was slowly whittled down over the next decade until Dave Heinz and Dave Yarborough teamed up in 1979 to make the trek in 32 hours and 51 minutes behind the wheel of a Jaguar XJS.
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Though Cannonball disbanded after that, a similar event, dubbed the US Express, quickly took its place. In the final US Express, Doug Turner and David Diem drove a Ferrari 308 across the country in 32 hours and 7 minutes. That record, set in 1983, went unbroken for more than 20 years – until Alex Roy's crossing in 2006. And now…
The Car
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"I've wanted to break the record since I was 18 years old," said Ed, now 27, casually sipping coffee. He doesn't sound like someone with a razor-sharp focus on breaking one of the most difficult – and bizarre – automotive records in existence. But he is.
Preparations started several years ago. At first, it was just the general questions. What car to buy. What route to take. What supplies to bring.
But last year, he finally got serious. The car came first.
"I thought about a Ferrari 612," said Ed. "But gas mileage would've been bad. A Bentley would've been perfect, but you'd want the V8 for gas mileage, and those are still way too expensive."
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Why not an E63? Or my CTS-V Wagon, which has "understated lawbreaking" written all over it?
"You need active suspension," said Ed. "You know… for the fuel tanks."
That's right: the fuel tanks. You see, look at it from the outside and you wouldn't know Ed's CL55 is anything other than a typical CL-Class, purchased by some old guy in Palm Beach because, let's face it, the S-Class just has too many doors. But poke around under the skin, and Ed's CL is far from typical.
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Let's start with the fuel tanks. There are two of them, both 22 gallons – and that's in addition to the 23-gallon tank Mercedes installed at the factory. The result is a constant, pervasive gas smell when you're standing anywhere in the car's vicinity. But it also means the car can hold 67 gallons of fuel – or, put another way, over 400 pounds of gasoline. Hence the active suspension.
But it's so much more than fuel tanks. There's a police scanner. There are two Garmin GPS units with traffic capabilities. There are two iPhone chargers and cradles to run apps like Trapster; an iPad charger and cradle; and three radar detectors. And that's just the easy stuff. There's a switch to kill the rear lights, a switch to activate the fuel tanks, and a professionally installed switch panel mounted in the center stack that controls all of these goodies. There's a CB radio, complete with a giant trunk-mounted antenna. There are two laser jammers. Ed had someone working on a radar jammer, but it wasn't ready in time.
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"How much do you think you've spent on all this?" I ask.
"I don't even want to calculate it," says Ed.
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But Ed knows exactly what he spent on the car's final service before its record-breaking run: nearly $9,000 in one comprehensive, front-to-back, full overhaul. That included new fluids and filters, new tires, new brake pads and rotors, new control arm bushings, new spark plugs, a new battery, and new struts for the car's complicated Active Body Control system. If that sounds like a lot of effort, it's because the record-breaking car is no spring chicken: the odometer reads 115,000 miles.
"Probably 118,000 now," says Ed.
The Preparation
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You might think the hardest part of setting the cross-country driving record is driving across the country. You might think the hardest part is staying awake for more than 24 hours, or constantly keeping your foot on the floor. You might think the hardest part is round-the-clock vigilance for law enforcement. You'd be wrong.
Ed assures me, wholeheartedly, that the most difficult thing about breaking the record was the preparation.
"Every year, Alex [Roy] hears about five to seven attempts to break the record," says Ed, who sought advice from the former recordholder about exactly how to prepare for the trip. "None of the challengers come close."
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But that wasn't Ed. Between the 67-gallon gas tank and the CL55's "upper 13s" fuel economy, Ed says he was able to travel more than 800 miles between fuel stops. He removed the rear seat on the driver's side to fit a spare tire, since trunk real estate was reserved for the fuel tanks. And he used the CB radio to pose as a trucker.
"If two trucks were next to one another, we'd call to one of them," he explained. "'FedEx, this is King Trucking. I'm right next to you. Can you tap your brakes so I can get by?' When we sped past, they probably saw the huge antenna on my trunk and got really mad."
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Ed's preparation didn't stop there. He loaded the car with nutrition bars, energy drinks, and Blue Donkey Iced Coffee. He hired a GPS tracking company to document the car's every move. Worried about anything that would eat precious time, he brought along extra bottles and bedpans – in case the team had to use the bathroom … on the go. He thought of everything.
Well, almost everything.
The Team
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After all the effort Ed put into preparing for the run, he still had one big hurdle to clear: finding someone – anyone – who was both crazy enough to go with him and competent enough to share driving responsibilities. Thirty hours of intense, high-speed driving just couldn't be done alone. And so Ed began calling everyone he knew.
One of those calls came to me, about six weeks ago. Ed told me his plan, and then – politely as ever – asked me to be his co-driver. The cross-country driving record has always fascinated me, and I've always said I would break it one day – but right now, I couldn't bear the intense liability and legal risk. Most potential drivers had similar concerns.
Who wants to be primarily known for breaking thousands of laws across a dozen states, just to beat some record that very few people care about? Worse: who wants to be known for dying in an attempt? And who wants to be arrested by some rural sheriff's deputy in the middle of the night and hauled off to jail while trying to achieve Ed's dream?
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Two weeks before the record-setting run, it was just Ed.
Eventually, he recruited a co-driver: Dave Black, a self-employed friend and customer from the Lamborghini dealership. A passenger – considered necessary by Ed to help with spotting police cars, calculating fuel consumption, and, above all, keeping everyone awake – was still up in the air. Ed dug deeper into his contacts. Then he started going through his Facebook friends.
"I got a Facebook message from Ed," said Dan Huang, a young Georgia Tech grad with a love of cars – and a fairly open schedule. "He didn't even have my cell phone number."
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The message came on Thursday afternoon: Ed was asking for a favor. Dan called to see what it was, and the two talked. They met up to examine the CL55. Less than 24 hours later, Dan was sitting inside of it, behind Dave and Ed, sharing the rear bench seat with a spare tire.
They were driving up the East Coast, headed for the starting line.
But while the team was assembled, they weren't necessarily ready. On a test run to find the best way out of Manhattan, Ed was stopped by the NYPD for making a right turn on red – and heading the wrong way on a one-way street – at the advice of a mobile app suggested by Dave.
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Though the officer only issued a warning, morale was low. The car smelled like fuel. The enormity of the task ahead weighed on all three men. After leaving Manhattan during the test run, they stopped at a Starbucks in New Jersey. Dan considered bailing out.
"I almost said, 'Guys, I can't do this,'" Dan told me later. "I had everything I brought in my backpack. I could've just taken a cab to LaGuardia and flown home. I almost opened my mouth."
But Dan didn't open his mouth, and neither did Dave – though Dave later admitted he was prepared to leave the team and fly home from New York if things didn't "feel right." Instead, everyone stayed quiet, piled into the car, and drove back to Manhattan. They were leaving in less than four hours.
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The Run
Ed, Dave, and Dan left the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan, the site of the original Cannonball Run starting line, at 9:56 p.m. on Saturday, October 19. They promptly got stuck in traffic.
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"It took us 15 minutes to get out of Manhattan," Ed said.
But they weren't stuck for long. I'm going to be vague about exact jurisdictions here, but I've pored over the telemetry and listened to the story I'm going to tell below, and I'll say this: New Jersey went by quickly. Pennsylvania went by really quickly. Ohio must've been a blur.
"I don't even remember Indiana," Ed recalled.
Part of the reason they could travel so fast was all the equipment. They didn't have night vision, as Roy did, and the police scanner wasn't working. But the detection devices behaved perfectly, the CB was adequate, and, most importantly, every GPS unit was plotting the same course.
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"We had trouble communicating in New York," said Dan. "But once we left, everything came together. It was like a symphony."
More importantly, however, they had a lead car to follow through most of Pennsylvania. It was the first of several they'd have along the trip: a friend of Ed's or Dave's who lived along the way and volunteered to get on the highway a few hours before the CL55 came raging past. The lead car would drive the speed limit, 150 or 200 miles ahead, and warn the team of police, construction, or other potential issues. It made all the difference on the first leg.
"That set the tone for the whole trip," Ed said.
By the time the team left Ohio, their average speed was already where it needed to be in order to tie Roy's record. When they reached St. Louis, the sun still hadn't come up. They kept heading west at a furious pace. They entered Oklahoma. They left Oklahoma. As they crossed into Texas, Ed got an excited call from a friend back home who was tracking the group's progress. He had some incredible news: the team could travel the speed limit for the entire remainder of the trip … and still break Roy's record. They had 1,200 miles to go.
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But they didn't travel the speed limit. Instead, they pushed faster. Reaching western states like Arizona and New Mexico, Ed and Dave exploited the enormously straight stretches of notoriously empty highways. Speeds reached … well, they reached pretty damn high, according to the telemetry data.
Fortunately, the extra fuel tanks meant that cruising at such high speeds wasn't a problem.
Yes, the car smelled like the inside of a gas pump – but that was the tradeoff for its immense range. And the team could use two pumps simultaneously, which meant filling up all three tanks took about as long as filling up a normal car's single tank. As long as the CL55 could last a few more hours without catching on fire, Ed knew the team would make it.
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Unfortunately, California posed problems.
"The race is in the second-half of the run," former record holder David Diem tells Jalopnik.
The team reached Southern California just as the sun was setting, meaning that they were virtually blinded. To make matters worse, they were heading down in elevation, which meant there were no mountain ranges to offer occasional shadows. Speeds dropped. Delirium set in. At one point, a tractor-trailer cut in front of Ed and two of the CL55's wheels left the pavement. It was the closest they had come to an accident. With just a few hundred miles left in the journey, the team was on edge.
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As they reached Los Angeles, they had a choice. They could slow down, cruise to the finish line, and claim the record. Or they could push it, take their chances with the police, and try to set a time that would be virtually unbeatable for any future drivers who might make an attempt. With more than 27 hours of non-stop, high-speed driving under their belts, the group took a vote.
They decided to push it.
At 11:46 p.m. on Saturday, October 20, the group reached the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach, California, the site of the original Cannonball Run finish line. No one in the hotel had ever heard of the Cannonball Run. The valet had no idea why he was taking pictures of three grown men standing in front of a used Mercedes that was splattered with bugs. He also had no idea why it smelled so distinctly of fuel.
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The run was over, and the watches were stopped. According to those involved, they all said the same thing: 28 hours, 50 minutes. The team covered 2,813.7 miles at an average speed of 98 miles per hour. They stopped for fuel just three times. Based on that number, Alex Roy's 31:04 record had been beaten by two hours and 14 minutes.
Surprisingly, Ed says problems with law enforcement were minimal. Though the group saw a lot of police cars, especially in New Mexico and Arizona, the only close call came late at night in Ohio when they passed a Crown Vic sitting in a median. Dave was driving, and Ed yelled to slow down – but it was too late. They passed the police car at 95 miles per hour. It didn't move an inch.
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The team checked into the Portofino Hotel for a night's rest before waking up the next morning to catch a plane back to Atlanta. Hotel staff gave the group earplugs, customarily provided to guests so they wouldn't be kept awake by the sound of nearby sea lions. After almost 29 hours on the road, none of the men bothered to wear them.
Burden of Proof
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Those who have laid claim to this record in the past have done so with toll tickets, punched time clocks, gas receipts, and logbooks. Ed took a far more precise approach to verification. It's in the form of a document, prepared by the GPS tracking firm he hired, that lists his address, latitude, longitude, and speed every minute or so throughout the entire trip. It's 218 pages long. I looked over the document from start to finish, and the evidence is, at the very least, comprehensive. I ask Ed if he plans to post it on the Internet.
"It's very incriminating," he says with a smile.
The club of men (it's almost entirely male) who claim to have done this trip share something beyond a heavy right foot and a passion for danger: they all think the other guy is full of crap.
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Six months after Roy attempted his journey, but before he announced it publicly, Richard Rawlings (of Fast N' Loud fame) joined Dennis Collins, on a bet, to make the same trip from Midtown Manhattan to Redondo Beach. The two averaged 87.6 m.p.h. in a Ferrari 550 Maranello, making the 2,811 mile trip in just 31 hours and 59 minutes.
When Roy later announced his 31:04 run, Rawlings complained to the New York Times that Roy didn't follow the right route, saying that "Alex's perceived transcontinental record is not valid. He didn't stick to the route."
Collins calls Roy a "frenemy," and they all seem to talk to one another regularly enough. They also seem to be generally aware when people attempt to best their records – so they already knew about Ed when contacted by Jalopnik.
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"I talked to that jackwagon, and it doesn't make sense to me," said Rawlings. "But I'm willing to look at anything and, fuck, if you've got the proof, badass. I don't know mathematically how it worked."
That last point, about speed, is something Collins and others also brought up. Rawlings claims that, in his run with Collins, the duo exceeded 200 m.p.h. multiple times. Ed, meanwhile, admits his car is speed-limited to 156 – and that he was mostly driving slower than that.
"I don't want say [it's] impossible, but… miraculous," says Collins who, like everyone else, is interested in seeing the GPS data.
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Ed arranged for Jalopnik to speak with an employee of the GPS company that tracked Ed's run, who asked not to be named and requested that the company not be named. This person said the company was unaware of how Ed planned to use its services prior to the attempt – but noted that it attests to the accuracy of the data that was exported from Ed's in-car tracking device.
Though all the players in the world of transcontinental speed records were skeptical, everyone Jalopnik contacted seemed to think it was, at the very least, possible. And they were all anxious to dissect the trip.
"Records are made to be broken, I'm surprised our record stood for as many years as it did," said Diem, who was especially surprised Alex's record was broken in a CL55.
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Roy, for his part, doesn't wish to speak publicly about it.
What Now?
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After Alex Roy set the transcontinental driving record, he waited a year to come forward – until the statute of limitations expired on every single illegal act he committed. Ed and Dave waited less than three weeks.
I asked Ed if he was worried about getting caught, extradited, and possibly put on trial for speeding in every rural county between New York and L.A. that's looking to make an example out of a Mercedes-driving, big-city lawbreaker. He told me his concern ebbs and flows – but he noted it would be hard to prove he was speeding in any one particular jurisdiction. Still, he didn't set out to prove the inadequacy of law enforcement – and he's worried one officer or jurisdiction may try to make an example out of him. But are they really going to spend the money and take the time to extradite someone for speeding? Ed asks the question, hoping the answer is 'no' – but he knows that the same outcry over a speed record set around Manhattan earlier this year could bring the police down on him. He just hopes that doesn't happen.
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I also ask if he's worried about the public. Will a mob of angry citizens show up outside his house, demanding that he "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!"? He admits that's possible, too – but he hopes that any furor will die down until the only people who remember his name are fellow car enthusiasts.
And if there's no angry mob or indignant police? Maybe he'll write a book, as Alex did. Maybe a few YouTube videos. But Ed doesn't care about any money he could make from the endeavor, largely because he knows there won't be much.
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Plus, he didn't break the record for money. He did it so one day, years from now, he could sit down with his grandchildren and tell them about his passion for cars – a passion highlighted not by selling Lamborghinis or driving exotics, but by the time their grandfather was the fastest man ever to drive across the United States. And then he'll bring them into his garage and show them the CL55 that will be forever linked to his record-setting run. Maybe, by then, it will stop smelling like fuel.
@DougDeMuro is the author of Plays With Cars. He operates PlaysWithCars.com. He owned an E63 AMG wagon and once tried to evade police at the Tail of the Dragon using a pontoon boat. (It didn't work.) He worked as a manager for Porsche Cars North America before quitting to become a writer, largely because it meant he no longer had to wear pants. Also, he wrote this entire bio himself in the third person. | – Ed Bolian says he's done something virtually impossible, highly dangerous, and extraordinarily illegal: Along with a hastily-recruited co-driver and passenger, he drove from New York City to LA in 28 hours and 50 minutes, he tells Doug Demuro of Jalopnik. That means the team traveled an average of 98mph, including 46 minutes of total stop time, USA Today reports, with a top speed of 158mph. If it's true—and Bolian allegedly has 218 pages of GPS tracking data to prove it is—the Oct. 19-20 drive shatters the 2006 record of 31 hours and 4 minutes. Though little-known, the cross-country record has a storied history, dating to 1933. "I've wanted to break the record since I was 18 years old," Bolian says. He spent years planning his run, outfitting his car—a nine-year-old Mercedes-Benz CL55 with 115,000 miles on it—with two extra 22-gallon fuel tanks; two GPSes; a host of cop-avoidance gadgets, including three radar detectors; and a CB radio, used to trick truckers into getting out of his way by posing as one of them. They also brought a bedpan, so they could avoid all possible stops. It's a pretty wild story, with the drive kicking off with 15 minutes of NYC traffic, and Demuro's full writeup is worth a read. |
CLOSE Denis Ten, the 2014 Olympic figure skating bronze medalist, was stabbed to death in Kazakhstan on Thursday. He was 25 years old. Time
Denis Ten of Kazakhstan won bronze at the Sochi Games. (Photo: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sport)
Kazakh figure skater and Olympic medalist Denis Ten died Thursday after being stabbed in an attack in the streets of the country's largest city, a top Kazakh official confirmed on social media. He was 25.
Kazakh Minister of Culture and Sports Arystanbek Mukhamediuly wrote in a Facebook post that Ten, the first figure skater from Kazakhstan to earn an Olympic medal, died of stab wounds after thieves tried to steal the mirrors off his car in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
An emergency surgery to save Ten's life was unsuccessful, Mukhamediuly added.
"This is an unthinkable tragedy and irreparable loss," Mukhamediuly wrote in the post, according to a translation from Kazakh news agency Kazinform.
The International Skating Union and International Olympic Committee also confirmed Ten's death on Twitter on Thursday morning.
"Denis Ten was a great athlete and a great ambassador for his sport," IOC president Thomas Bach said in a statement. "A warm personality and a charming man. Such a tragedy to lose him at such a young age."
Ten was one of Kazakhstan's most accomplished individual athletes and its most prominent figure skater. He twice medaled at the World Figure Skating Championships — earning a silver in 2013 and a bronze in 2015 — and won bronze at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.
U.S. Olympian Adam Rippon was among those in the figure-skating community to pay tribute to Ten on social media.
"(Ten) was so kind to everyone and a huge inspiration to me and so many other people," Rippon wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning. "Murdered in the streets of Kazakhstan. Denis, thank you for showing us how to be a champion. Your time with us was way too short. Love you forever."
My skating friend, @Tenis_Den, passed away today. He was so kind to everyone and a huge inspiration to me and so many other people. Murdered in the streets of Kazakhstan. Denis, thank you for showing us how to be a champion. Your time with us was way too short. Love you forever. — Adam Rippon (@Adaripp) July 19, 2018
Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @Tom_Schad. ||||| (CNN) Tributes are being paid to Denis Ten, Kazakhstan's Olympic medal-winning figure skater, who died Thursday at the age of 25 after being stabbed.
Ten, who became the first Kazakh figure skater to win an Olympic medal when he secured bronze at Sochi 2014, was stabbed as two men attempted to steal his car mirrors, according to news agency Kazinform
The former world silver medalist was taken to the hospital after the attack in Almaty, the country's largest city, but died later of his injuries.
American figure skater Adam Rippon described Ten as a "huge inspiration."
Rippon wrote on Twitter: "My skating friend, @Tenis_Den, passed away today. He was so kind to everyone and a huge inspiration to me and so many other people.
Read More | – Kazakhstan is in mourning for a beloved Olympic athlete who was murdered by thieves on a street in the country's biggest city. Authorities in the central Asian country say Denis Ten, a 25-year-old figure skater, was fatally stabbed in Almaty by two men who had been trying to steal the wing mirrors from his car, CNN reports. He was hospitalized but died from his injuries Thursday. Ten, one of Kazakhstan's most famous athletes, won bronze at the 2014 Olympics and earned a silver medal at the World Figure Skating Championships in 2013, followed by a bronze in 2015, USA Today reports. American figure skater Adam Rippon was among many people paying tribute to Ten Thursday. "He was so kind to everyone and a huge inspiration to me and so many other people," Rippon tweeted. "Murdered in the streets of Kazakhstan. Denis, thank you for showing us how to be a champion. Your time with us was way too short. Love you forever." Ten "was a great athlete and a great ambassador for his sport," International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach said in a statement. "Such a tragedy to lose him at such a young age." |
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Opposition deputies reacted with joy after the vote
Ukrainian MPs have voted to oust President Viktor Yanukovych and hold early presidential elections on 25 May.
The vote came after police stopped guarding presidential buildings, allowing protesters in, and parliament made new high-level appointments.
Mr Yanukovych said it was a "coup" and vowed not to stand down.
And on a day of fast-moving events, prominent opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko was released from detention, hours after MPs authorised the move.
She left the hospital in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she had been held under prison guard, and flew to Kiev, where she addressed the demonstrators in Independence Square.
Ms Tymoshenko was freed following a vote by parliament on Friday demanding her release.
She was sentenced to seven years in jail in 2011 after a controversial verdict on her actions as prime minister.
Her supporters have always maintained this was simply Mr Yanukovych taking out his most prominent opponent, and her release has always been a key demand of the protest movement.
BBC correspondents in Ukraine Kevin Bishop @bishopk: Looks like Olexander Turchynov, Rada Speaker, (Ukrainian Parliament), is acting head of state as there is no prime minister, sacked earlier
Duncan Crawford @_DuncanC: A huge shrine to the dead is now on the edge of Independence Sq. Hundreds of flowers and candles. Duncan Crawford @_DuncanC: .Yanukovych's official annual salary was reportedly anywhere between $30000 to $115,000 a year. I wonder how he could afford a zoo etc..?
Daniel Sandford @BBCDanielS: Interfax say [Kharkiv regional governor] Dobkin left Ukraine for Russia. Not much of a brave last stand. Daniel Sandford @BBCDanielS: The Kharkiv prison authorities did what parliament said, so at the moment parliament is winning the power struggle. Your move Yanukovych Profile: Yulia Tymoshenko Yanukovych defiance: Full text
On Thursday, the bloodiest day of recent unrest, at least 21 protesters and one policeman died.
Ms Tymoshenko told journalists at Kiev airport that those behind violence "must be punished", the Interfax agency reports.
'Coup' denounced
The opposition is now in effective control of the capital Kiev, with Mr Yanukovych in Kharkiv, near the Russian border, after travelling there late on Friday night.
The Interfax news agency reported parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov as saying Mr Yanukovych had been stopped by border police in an attempt to flee to Russia and was now somewhere in the Donetsk region.
Earlier on Saturday, protesters walked unchallenged into the president's office and residential compounds.
Image copyright AP Image caption Tymoshenko greeted supporters on her release from detention in Kharkiv
Image copyright AFP Image caption More funerals took place in the Maidan on Saturday for those killed in this week's violence
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Those suspected of being members of the security services were attacked in central Kiev
Image copyright AFP Image caption Protesters walked into Mr Yanukovych's official residence near Kiev unopposed
Image copyright AFP Image caption Meanwhile in the eastern city of Donetsk, a new separatist movement called the Eastern Front held a rally
The vote to "remove Viktor Yanukovych from the post of president of Ukraine" was passed by 328 MPs.
Such ballots, passed by what is called constitutional majority, are binding and enter into force with immediate effect, the BBC's Ukraine analyst Olexiy Solohubenko reports.
Analysis Events in Ukraine are moving at too fast a pace to provide any coherent analysis that won't be obsolete in hours, if not minutes. So here is a list of people and places to watch as the situation continues to develop - and twist and turn: Yulia Tymoshenko: The freed prime minister is a political force of nature. But she is also divisive and, before she went into prison, her popularity ratings were dropping. Many Ukrainians blame her in part for the chaos of the post-Orange Revolution years, or see her as a member of Ukraine's corrupt political elite. We will see if the last two years in prison have changed her or the public's opinion of her. Crimea: Ukraine's predominantly ethnic-Russian province is also the home to Russia's Black Sea fleet, in Sevastopol. If President Viktor Yanukovych - or Vladimir Putin - wants to start something, it could very likely happen here. The Maidan: Will the protesters go home now? And what role will Ukraine's far right play - not just the fighters of the Right Sektor, but also the ultra-nationalist Freedom party, which has done much of the heavy lifting during the protest movement?
In an address televised before the vote to impeach him, Mr Yanukovych described events in Kiev as a "coup".
He insisted he was the "lawfully elected president" and compared the actions of the opposition to the rise to power of the Nazis in 1930s Germany.
In his address Mr Yanukovych also called a raft of votes in Ukraine's parliament on Friday "illegitimate", claiming that MPs had been "beaten, pelted with stones and intimidated".
However, he did admit that that some had left his Party of the Regions, calling them "traitors".
President Yanukovych also said his ally, parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Rybak, was forced to resign because he had been physically beaten.
Mr Rybak resigned on Saturday morning citing ill health, and was replaced by Mr Turchynov, a Tymoshenko ally.
Another Tymoshenko ally, Arsen Avakov, was appointed interim interior minister, replacing Vitaly Zakharchenko - who was sacked on Friday after being blamed for the deaths of civilians in last week's crackdown on protests.
Pact overtaken
Before the vote to oust Mr Yanukovych, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski - one of three EU ministers who mediated between the two sides this week - tweeted that there had been "no coup in Kiev".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse takes a look around the presidential retreat
Mr Sikorski, along with the German and French foreign ministers, presided over talks that led to a pact on Friday between Mr Yanukovych and opposition leaders which now seems to have been overtaken by events.
The deal followed several days of violence in which dozens of people died in a police crackdown on months of protest. It called for the restoration of the 2004 constitution and the formation of a national unity government.
The agreement failed to end the protests overnight with huge crowds remaining in the Maidan calling for Mr Yanukovych's resignation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the deal had been "sharply degraded by opposition forces' inability or lack of desire" to respect it and accused "illegal extremist groups" of taking control of Kiev, Reuters reports.
The protests first erupted in late November when President Yanukovych rejected a landmark association and trade deal with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia. ||||| KIEV Ukraine's parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovich after three months of street protests, while his arch-rival Yulia Tymoshenko hailed opposition demonstrators as "heroes" in an emotional speech in Kiev after she was released from jail.
Yanukovich abandoned the capital to the opposition on Saturday and denounced what he described as a coup after several days of bloodshed this week that claimed 82 lives.
Supporters cheered former prime minister Tymoshenko as she left the hospital where she had been held. When she spoke later in Kiev, her reception was mixed.
Her release marks a radical transformation in the former Soviet republic of 46 million people. Removal of the pro-Russian Yanukovich should pull Ukraine away from Moscow's orbit and closer to Europe.
It is also a reversal for Russian President Vladimir Putin's dream of recreating as much as possible of the Soviet Union in a new Eurasian Union. Moscow had counted on Yanukovich to deliver Ukraine as a central member.
Members of the Ukrainian parliament, who abandoned Yanukovich after this week's bloodshed, applauded and sang the national anthem after declaring him constitutionally unable to carry out his duties. An early election was set for May 25.
"This is a political knockout," opposition leader and retired world boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko told reporters.
In a television interview the station said was conducted in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Yanukovich said he would not resign or leave the country, and called decisions by parliament "illegal".
"The events witnessed by our country and the whole world are an example of a coup d'etat," he said, comparing it to the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany in the 1930s.
Interfax news agency said border guards refused to let Yanukovich exit the country when he tried to fly out from the eastern city of Donetsk.
SECRET ESTATE
At Yanukovich's abandoned secret estate a short distance from Kiev, people flocked to take photographs of his private zoo with ostriches and deer, replica ancient Greek ruins, and lavish waterways and follies.
Despite Yanukovich's defiance, the dismantling of his authority seemed all but complete. His cabinet promised a transition to a new government, the police declared themselves behind the protesters and his arch-rival Tymoshenko went free.
Tymoshenko, with her trademark braided hair, waved to supporters from a car as she was driven out of the hospital in Kharkiv, where she has been treated for a bad back while serving a seven-year sentence since 2011.
Setting herself immediately on a collision course with Moscow, Tymoshenko said she was sure her country would join the European Union in the near future. Her release was welcomed by Washington.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said "illegal extremist groups are refusing to disarm and in fact are taking Kiev under their control with the connivance of opposition leaders".
As night fell, 30,000 opposition supporters on Kiev's Independence Square, scene of nearly three months of protests, were in buoyant mood.
There was sadness too, with coffins displayed in front of the crowd as priests said prayers. People crossed themselves in front of makeshift shrines with candles and pictures of the dead. Two captured water cannon trucks were parked in the square like trophies of war.
Carried on to a stage in a wheelchair, an emotional and tired-looking Tymoshenko told the protesters on the square, known as the Maidan: "You have no right to leave the Maidan ... Don't stop yet.
FIERY ORATORY
Showing glimpses of the fiery oratory that drove her to power, Tymoshenko shouted: "This is a Ukraine of different people. The ones who died on Maidan are our liberators, our heroes for centuries."
The response was mixed. Tymoshenko is a divisive figure in Ukraine, where many have become disillusioned with a political class they see as corrupt and elitist.
Small pockets of the crowd clapped and sang Tymoshenko's name, but the chants did not catch on. Whistles could be heard. Others listened silently.
Earlier, the Ukrainian cabinet said it was committed to a responsible transfer of power. Military and police leaders said they would not get involved in any internal conflict.
Yanukovich enraged much of the population by turning away from the European Union to cultivate closer relations with Russia three months ago. On Friday, he made sweeping concessions in a deal brokered by European diplomats after days of street battles during which police snipers gunned down protesters.
But the deal, which called for early elections by the end of the year, was not enough to satisfy pro-Europe demonstrators on Independence Square. They wanted Yanukovich out immediately in the wake of the bloodletting.
The release of Tymoshenko transforms Ukraine by giving the opposition a single leader who may become president, although Klitschko and others also have claims.
Tymoshenko, 53, was jailed by a court under Yanukovich over a natural gas deal with Russia she arranged while serving as premier before he took office. The EU had long considered her a political prisoner, and her freedom was one of the main demands it had for closer ties with Ukraine during years of negotiations that ended when Yanukovich turned towards Moscow in November.
She had served as a leader of the "Orange Revolution" of mass demonstrations which overturned a fraudulent election victory for Yanukovich in 2004, but after a divisive term as prime minister she lost to him in an election in 2010.
(Additional reporting by Tim Heritage and Richard Balmforth in Kiev, Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow and Marcin Goettig in Warsaw; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by David Gregorio) | – Ukraine's newly empowered parliament has voted to allow the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko after more than two years in prison. Legislators voted 310-54 to decriminalize the count under which she was imprisoned, meaning that she is no longer guilty of a criminal offense. "Free Yulia! Free Yulia!" legislators chanted after the vote. It was not immediately clear when she might be released from the eastern city of Kharkiv where she is serving her sentence. As part of today's deal between President Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders, the parliament also granted unconditional amnesty to detained protesters, notes Reuters. It seems to bode well for an end to the recent violence, but the New York Times raise two big caveats: Russia hasn't backed the deal, and many protesters continue to demand the resignation of Yanukovich. |
UPDATE: Story has been updated to include comment from Cook Nuclear Plant spokesman.
BRIDGMAN, MI -- Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant in Bridgman has leaked an estimated 2,000 gallons of oil into Lake Michigan since Oct. 25, according to an event notification posted on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website.
Plant officials notified the NRC, plus state and local officials, on Dec. 20 about the leak, which is from the Unit 2 main turbine lube oil cooler.
The notification said that "no visible oil or oil sheen is present on Lake Michigan or the shore line."
The leak was isolated as of 10:30 a.m. Dec. 20, the notice said. "Leak repairs will be made to the cooler prior to placing back in service."
Plant officials notified federal, state and local officials as soon as they realized there was a leak, said Bill Schalk, the spokesman for Cook.
He said the company noticed a slight drop in its oil levels starting on Oct. 26, but "there are lots of things that can cause that."
In addition, the plant was taken offline for two days at the end of October after excessive debris from large waves from Lake Michigan damaged several water screens.
"Because of that, we didn't have a good steady stream of date to recognize that we were losing (oil)," Schalk said.
It wasn't until Dec. 16 that it was determined a leak might exist and on Dec. 19, it was traced to one of four heat-exchange tanks, where hot oil runs through hundreds of tubes and is cooled by lake water in the tank.
"We've shut off that tank, and now we need to develop a plan to find the leak," he said.
The oil was leaking at a rate of about a third of cup, or 5 ounces, an hour into the plant's lake-water discharge of 1.5 million gallons an hour.
"We take samples of lake water every day, but the leak was small enough that we didn't pick it up," Schalk said.
The estimate of 2,000 gallons of oil leakage overall is based on a calculation that the leak began Oct. 26.
"That the worse-case scenario," he said. "It wouldn't be more than that, and it's probably less."
The incident has not affected the plant's electrical production, Schalk said, and the leak was small enough that there is no cleanup involved.
"We just need to fix the tank and make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.
In August, plant officials issued a report that 8,700 gallons of diesel fuel were suspected to have been released from a buried fuel oil tank, but later said there was no leak and the report resulted from "instrumentation error."
The plant is located near Bridgman, 11 miles south of St. Joseph along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Unit 2 went into operation in 1978.
The plant is owned by American Electric Power and operated by Indiana Michigan Power, an AEP subsidiary.
Julie Mack covers K-12 education and writes a column for Kalamazoo Gazette. Email her at [email protected], call her at 269-350-0277 or follow her on Twitter at @kzjuliemack. ||||| The Donald C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant near Bridgman, on the shores of Lake Michigan. (Photo: Indiana Michigan Power)
An oil cooling system on the turbine of a southwest Michigan nuclear power plant leaked oil into Lake Michigan for about two months, according to plant officials.
Officials with the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant near Bridgman reported the leak to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as state and local authorities, on Dec. 20, according to an event notification posted on the NRC's website. Plant officials believe 2,000 gallons of oil leaked into the lake, and a retroactive examination of system oil levels leads plant personnel to believe the leak may have been ongoing since about Oct. 25, said Bill Schalk, communications manager for the Cook Nuclear Plant.
"One of the first things we did when we looked at the potential for a leak is examine the lake," he said. "Oil floats on top of the water and you see a sheen, but we could find no evidence of oil in our reservoirs, in the lake or on the beach. It has been dispersed."
The leak involved an oil cooling system on the two-turbine plant's Unit 2 main turbine. The series of tubes runs in a heat exchanger where hot oil is cooled by water from Lake Michigan. It's believed the oil leaked into a tube or tubes and was mixed into the cooling water, Schalk said. The turbine system is separate from the plant's radioactive facilities, so the leaked oil is not contaminated with radiation, he said.
Plant officials extrapolate that the oil leaked at about 0.04 gallons per minute, which did not allow detection in the total water discharge flow of 1.5 million gallons of water per minute, Schalk said.
It took time to identify the existence of a leak because a variety of factors can account for changes in oil levels in the system, he said, including lake temperatures and the fact that the plant temporarily shut down on Nov. 1 due to storms in the region.
"About a day and a half from when we really believed in earnest there could be a leak, we discovered it" on Dec. 20, Schalk said.
The exact location of the leak has not yet been determined, but workers isolated the cooling system tank in which the leak is occurring, he said.
"We won't return that tank to service until we are certain we have found the leak, and there is no more potential for leaking," Schalk said.
Three other tanks also cool turbine lubrication oil at the plant, so it is able to continue operating at full power, he said.
The Berrien County Sheriff's Department's Office of Emergency Management, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and NRC were all notified of the leak, Schalk said.
The Cook Nuclear Plant is operated by Indiana Michigan Power Co., a unit of American Electric Power headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Its two nuclear power units have operated since 1975 and 1978 respectively, and together generate more than 2,150 megawatts of power, enough electricity for 1.5 million average homes, according to the plant's website. NRC licenses for plant operation expire in 2034 for Unit 1; 2037 for Unit 2.
Buy Photo (Photo: Detroit Free Press)
Both the DEQ and EPA will require follow-up reports on the oil leak within the next month, Schalk said.
Michael Keegan, director of the nonprofit Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, is troubled by news of the leak.
"What's concerning is they don't really know the extent of the leak," he said. "Nearly two months later is the first determination they make that they have an oil leak? It speaks to the quality assurance of all of their other systems."
The fact that the oil is not recoverable is also problematic, Keegan said.
"There's a belief some have that the solution to pollution is dilution. It's not," he said.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1I6Ppqb | – A nuclear plant leaked oil into Lake Michigan for almost two months, and although the oil wasn't contaminated with radiation, safety groups are alarmed by how long it took the plant to spot the leak. Officials at the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant in southwest Michigan reported the problem to federal authorities on Dec. 20, estimating around 2,000 gallons of oil leaked into the lake starting in late October, reports the Detroit Free Press. Plant officials say the oil leaked from a cooling system at the rate of around 0.04 gallons per minute, which made the leak tough to detect amid water discharge of 1.5 million gallons of water per minute. "We take samples of lake water every day, but the leak was small enough that we didn't pick it up," a plant spokesman tells MLive.com, explaining that factors including a huge storm at the end of October made it harder to monitor oil flow. The estimate of 2,000 gallons of leakage is a "worst-case scenario" and the true figure is probably less, he says. The director of the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes doesn't find that reassuring. "What's concerning is they don't really know the extent of the leak," he tells the Free Press. "Nearly two months later is the first determination they make that they have an oil leak? It speaks to the quality assurance of all of their other systems." |
Conway accuses Meryl Streep of 'inciting people's worst instincts'
Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes speech Sunday night was a disappointment, incoming counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Monday morning, stating that the actress offered a divisive message indicative of Hollywood’s “self-pity” instead of a unifying one.
Streep, who was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at the Golden Globes awards show, devoted significant time in her acceptance remarks to criticizing Donald Trump. She accused the president-elect of bullying and said his speech last year in which he seemingly mocked a disabled person was the “one performance this year that stunned me.”
Story Continued Below
“She sounds like 2014. The election is over. She lost,” Conway said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.” “Everybody in that audience, with very few exceptions, was of a single, myopic mind as to how they wanted the election to go and how they expected the election to go. They lost, and I really wish she would have stood up last night and said ‘Look, I didn’t like the election results, but he’s our president and we’re going to support him.’”
Conway accused Streep of “inciting people’s worst instincts” with her speech. Trump’s incoming counselor said the time would have been put to better usesearching for common ground with the incoming administration, something Conway suggested the president-elect “has actually done from moment one.”
“But this is Hollywood. I think where there is self-pity, a lot more self-awareness would do them some charm,” she continued. “Talking about how vilified poor Hollywood is, in their gazillion-dollar gowns. Can I borrow a couple of those for the inaugural, please?”
Trump shot back at Streep as well, taking to Twitter to label her “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood” and a “Hillary flunky who lost big.” As he has in the past, Trump disputed the notion that he had mocked the reporter, The New York Times’ Serge Kovaleski, insisting that he was mimicking the nervousness of a reporter backing away from a story years after the fact.
Trump had used a 2001 story by Kovaleski as the basis for his fictitious claim that thousands of Muslims celebrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on rooftops in New Jersey. Trump insisted he had seen video of the incident, although none has ever been uncovered, and Kovaleski disputed Trump’s understanding of the event.
On “Fox & Friends,” Conway wondered aloud why Streep had used her time on stage to attack Trump’s supposed mockery of a disabled individual and not to call attention to a recent case from Chicago in which four people were arrested last week for allegedly torturing a teenager with special needs and streaming the episode live on Facebook. Conway noted the races of those involved, four African-American suspects and a white victim, and said that if Streep is truly concerned about the disabled community, she should speak out about the incident in Chicago.
“I’m glad that Meryl Streep has such a passion for the disabled, because I didn’t hear her weigh in and I didn’t hear her even use her platform last night, Ainsley, to give a shoutout to the mentally challenged boy who last week was tortured live on Facebook for half an hour by four young African-American adults who were screaming racial and anti-Trump expletives and forcing him to put his head in toilet water,” Conway told Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt. “So I’d like to hear from her today, if she wants to come and continue her platform on behalf of the disabled.” ||||| Meryl Streep gave a powerful, politically charged speech at the Golden Globes and, while it was obvious whom she was speaking about, never mentioned Donald Trump by name.
In response, President-Elect Donald Trump made a series of tweets dismissing Meryl Streep as overrated.
And thus the Hollywood vs. politics debate rages on, now perhaps in a discourse more churlish and on a platform more undignified than ever.
Spurned by a petulant outburst by the incoming commander-in-chief, an obtuse tweet from John McCain’s daughter, teed-up yacking by Kellyanne Conway on Fox News, and a prevailing frustration over actors constantly espousing their politics in public arenas—a frustration that deserves to be validated—there is backlash over Meryl Streep’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globe Awards Sunday night.
Enough.
If we’re going to shine a spotlight on things that are tired, it is not the practice of celebrities talking about politics. It is the practice of complaining about that.
Here’s a brief recap of the debate.
Meryl Streep was given a lifetime achievement award Sunday night. Her speech commanded the room, with the Oscar winner eschewing the opportunity to express polite gratitude and toss off some witty quips to instead make a call to arms from her peers in Hollywood.
She brought up the incident in which Trump appeared to mock a disabled reporter—something he denied doing again in an interview with The New York Times and in his tweet tirade, but which there is video evidence of—and used the anecdote as the catalyst for a plea for greater empathy, from the people in the highest position in the world to those sitting in the ballroom to us watching at home.
Trump scoffed at the speech as pandering from a “Hillary flunky who lost big.” He called Meryl Streep, who was at the Globes to accept the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award for a career that has included 3 Oscars, 9 Golden Globes, and the branding as the Greatest Actress of All-Time, “overrated.”
(Perhaps, just perhaps, a person who purports to be in the business of uniting our nation could do better in that pursuit than disparaging Meryl Streep’s acting chops.)
Trump’s message—that he was attacked unfairly—was amplified by his supporters, who continue to insist that politics should be kept out of the mouths of celebrities.
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Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John McCain and frequent TV commentator, tweeted earlier in the night that, “This Meryl Streep speech is why Trump won. And if people in Hollywood don’t start recognizing why and how – you will help him get re-elected.”
Presumably she was referencing a sense of exhaustion over people in privileged positions presuming that their opinions merit public forums, and that Hollywood’s vocal support of Hillary Clinton irritated voters enough to flee in the other direction—that the optics of Clinton’s high-powered, rich and famous friends meant she was out of touch with the needs of everyday people.
It’s always been a confusing notion, particularly in comparison to mogul and reality star Donald Trump.
There’s also the idea that they’re “just celebrities,” that they don’t have any expertise on these issues and have no right to speak authoritatively on them. To that, as journalist Glenn Greenwald aptly inquired in a tweet that’s being circulated Monday morning, “Why are actors less qualified to comment on political issues than, say, cable TV or talk radio hosts? Never understood this rationale.”
Sure, like anyone who has passionate feelings on an issue and a microphone to share them from, people in Hollywood—liberals or otherwise—hope their message is heard by people with opposing views, that they digest it and consider it.
But the idea that Meryl Streep was unaware that she was speaking to a ballroom of friendly ears misunderstands what I gathered to be her intention.
She was speaking to a room full of celebrities whose politics she knows, about a frustration she knew they felt. Assumptions from tweets like McCain’s insinuating that Hollywood liberals don’t realize they’re in a bubble, or that Trump voters don’t like them, are ridiculous.
Streep made a plea to stand up against bullying, for dignity in power, and advocated for the arts. The catalyst for her plea was the election of Donald Trump. Of course it was. Streep, in addition to much of the Globes attendees, made no secret of her support of Hillary Clinton and her lack of respect for Trump and what he stands for.
Why would anyone be surprised that a Hollywood liberal made such a plea at an event celebrating Hollywood liberals?
“She didn’t change anyone’s minds” is the critique most commonly charged against her speech Monday morning. She wasn’t trying to change minds, or campaign for anything. She was calling to action people whose politics she already knew aligned with her own, whom she hoped she could motivate to take a stand for something meaningful.
Maybe that’s what made Sunday’s awards telecast seem so tonally off.
These events are typically characterized by cheerleading: for Obama, for their shared politics, for Hillary or against Trump, and, most often, for themselves. That kind of positive, unanimous energy is what made room for silly distractions and goofy bits like the ones host Jimmy Fallon tried to stage. But when the room no longer wanted to cheer—politically or otherwise—and instead set a more somber tone, the producers didn’t know how to reconcile that.
But to make the case that politics shouldn’t have been a part of the show entirely? C’mon.
People who continually say Hollywood and awards shouldn’t be platforms for politics and social justice need a new script. Have you seen an award show in the last 40-some years? It’s nothing new, and it’s not going to change.
Stretch back to Marlon Brandon inviting Sacheen Littlefeather on stage in 1973 all the way up to Boyhood’s Patricia Arquette urging for gender pay equality in 2014, with stops at every Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Sally Field, Michael Moore, Leonardo DiCaprio, and George Clooney in between.
If “know your audience” is a critique lobbied against Streep, “know your show” is applicable to those still upset about the confluence of Hollywood and politics.
Hollywood and politics, by the way: a copulation that inseminated Donald Trump and birthed his public career, and a topic he seemingly can’t stop tweeting about.
This is an industry that Trump has desperately wanted to be included in and welcomed by. There are the dozens and dozens of TV show and movie cameos he made, award shows he attended, and photos he took at parties with celebrities. He desperately wanted to win an Emmy and still complains that he didn't. All he has to show for his showbiz yearning is a Razzie award and an inauguration at which no one will perform.
It’s no wonder he’s taken to calling Meryl Streep overrated. And it’s no wonder Meryl Streep feels compelled to speak out. ||||| In an emotional speech on Saturday night, actress Meryl Streep doubled down on her harsh criticism of President Donald Trump, and spoke of becoming a target at the Golden Globes in January.
At a fundraising gala for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT group, Streep referred to Trump's tweet after her Globes speech, in which he called the celebrated actress "overrated."
"Yes, I am the most overrated, over-decorated and currently, I am the most over-berated actress ... of my generation," Streep said.
Streep said she wished she could stay at home and "and load the dishwasher" rather than take a podium to speak out adding that "the weight of all these honors" she's received in her career compelled her to speak out.
"It's terrifying to put the target on your forehead," she said. "And it sets you up for all sorts of attacks and armies of brown shirts and bots and worse, and the only way you can do it is if you feel you have to. You have to! You don't have an option. You have to."
Streep was receiving the group's National Ally for Equality Award.
She clarified that she indeed likes football too after previously saying that football and martial arts weren't arts in her Globes speech.
The actress also praised the organization for defending LGBT rights.
Streep then spoke about cultures used to put men at the top, but that women, people of color and other minorities began achieving their deserved rights at some point in the 20th century. "We shouldn't be surprised that fundamentalists, of all stripes, everywhere, are exercised and fuming," she said.
Turning to Trump, she said: "But if we live through this precarious moment — if his catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesn't lead us to nuclear winter — we will have much to thank this president for. Because he will have woken us up to how fragile freedom really is."
Streep said the country has now learned "how the authority of the executive, in the hands of a self-dealer, can be wielded against the people, and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The whip of the executive can, through a Twitter feed, lash and intimidate, punish and humiliate, delegitimize the press and all of the imagined enemies with spasmodic regularity and easily provoked predictability."
"All of us have the human right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," the actress said.
"If you think people were mad," Streep said, "when they thought the government was coming after their guns, wait until you see when they try to take away our happiness."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | – Eyes now automatically turn to Twitter after anyone criticizes Donald Trump, and Meryl Streep's dig at the president-elect during Sunday's Golden Globes did indeed elicit a Trump response. Streep used her time onstage while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award to talk about when she first saw Trump mock a disabled reporter at a 2015 rally. "It kind of broke my heart," she noted, berating the "instinct to humiliate" that he seemed to display. The New York Times first got hold of Trump right after the awards—it was Times reporter Serge Kovaleski whom Trump reportedly made fun of—and although he said he hadn't seen Streep's speech, he noted he "wasn't surprised" about coming under fire from "liberal movie people." "People keep saying I intended to mock the reporter's disability, as if Meryl Streep and others could read my mind, and I did no such thing," he said, adding he'd simply been "calling into question a reporter who had gotten nervous because he had changed his story." He reiterated his stance early Monday with a three-tweet defense. "Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a … Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never 'mocked' a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him … 'groveling' when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!" He also told the Times there'd be "plenty of movie and entertainment stars" at his inauguration and that "all the dress shops are sold out in Washington." |
I wonder how she’ll dig herself out of this …. well, you know. Valerie Macon / Getty Images
If you don’t believe that truth is stranger than fiction, it’s time for you to learn about the Isaiah Silva vs. Courtney Love lawsuit. The suit filed in Los Angeles County alleges that Love, Britney Spears’ former manager Sam Lufti, and 13 Reasons Why star Ross Butler (yes, really!) all conspired to kidnap, murder and rob Silva, Frances Bean Cobain’s ex-husband, in June 2016. According to the suit, the trio was after Kurt Cobain’s famed MTV unplugged guitar, an acoustic-electric 1959 Martin D-18E. The Martin would be the last guitar Kurt Cobain ever played.
The guitar has been a point of contention between Silva and the Cobain/Love family ever since Frances Bean Cobain filed for a divorce from Silva in 2016. It is a one-of-a-kind model, having been customized by the left-handed Kurt Cobain so that he could play it upside down. That particular model of guitar was also only produced for one year before being discontinued. In 2016, Courtney Love told TMZ that the guitar “is not [Silva’s] to take” and is “a treasured heirloom of the family” that her daughter “never planned on” giving to Silva. “I’m really glad she’s out of this very dangerous and toxic relationship,” Love said.
Silva’s lawsuit paints a very different—and altogether wilder—picture. According to him, Frances Bean Cobain gave him the guitar as a dating anniversary present shortly before their wedding. Moving the guitar out of storage required Courtney Love’s signature as well. Shortly after their marriage, Silva claims Frances Bean Cobain became addicted to narcotics and benzodiazepines which were allegedly provided to her by Sam Lufti and delivered by Ross Butler. Although Cobain and Silva attempted to settle their divorce amicably, according to the suit, Love and Lufti became obsessed with the Martin D-18E and began conspiring to murder Silva.
The suit alleges that Lufti, Love, Butler, and a chauffeur named Yan Yukhtman hacked into Silva’s iMessage account and impersonated him via text in order to make him seem suicidal. The plan, the suit claims, was to stage Silva’s suicide, thus freeing up the guitar and a number of his and Cobain’s shared assets. The foursome allegedly moved to execute this plan on June 3, 2016, when they supposedly entered Silva’s home and threatened him with rape and bodily harm in order to make him enter a car with them. A friend of Silva’s who had been in the house and was forcibly removed by the foursome reportedly called the police, who caught up with the car.
The suit alleges that Lufti “hurriedly concocted a false story intended to prevent LAPD from arresting them” and threatened to kill Silva’s seven-year-old daughter if he didn’t follow along. The police allegedly bought Lufti’s story that he, Love, Butler, and Yukhtman had just been playing a prank on their friend. The suit says, “it is believed, based upon facts and evidence, that Silva would have been taken to a secondary crime scene and murdered on June 3, 2016.”
According to Silva, the foursome then brought him back to the house and proceeded to try and pressure him into signing a settlement that would surrender the guitar, any claim to his and Cobain’s houses, and any spousal support from Cobain. Lufti’s threats against Silva’s family allegedly continued even after Silva fled his house, leaving Silva too scared to turn to the police. The suit claims that Silva believed Lufti, Love, and Cobain “controlled the LAPD, judicial system, and media.” Despite this, Silva filed a police report on June 8, 2016 and soon received a restraining order against Lufti.
If you were wondering where a Courtney-Love-killed-Kurt-Cobain conspiracy theory comes into this, here you go: According to Silva, Kurt Cobain’s mother Wendy O’Connor accused Love of being involved in Cobain’s suicide and said she was “keenly aware of the disturbing correlations between [Silva’s] circumstances and those of [Kurt Cobain].” According to Billboard, a source close to Love and Frances Bean Cobain says, “Frances and the family are prepared to fight with a fury of unprecedented legal force, and they will prevail.”
This is a wild tale which raises unending speculation and questions, but hopefully I’m not alone in asking the most important one: How did Zach from 13 Reasons Why/Reggie from Riverdale get involved in all this? ||||| Britney Spears' former manager Sam Lutfi is also a defendant in the lawsuit around a claimed attempt to regain possession of Kurt Cobain's iconic 'Unplugged' guitar.
Courtney Love is being sued by her daughter's ex-husband, alleging she conspired to have him murdered over ownership of her late husband Kurt Cobain's 1959 Martin D-18E guitar that was used during Nirvana's iconic MTV Unplugged in New York performance in 1993.
Along with several others, Sam Lutfi -- who managed Britney Spears during her public meltdown in 2007 -- is also named in the suit and accused of supplying illicit drugs to Love's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, as well as kidnapping, attempted murder, false imprisonment, extortion and more. Actor Ross Butler, star of 13 Reasons Why, is also accused of playing a role.
According to the civil complaint filed in Los Angeles County, Love, Lutfi and Butler entered into a criminal conspiracy to commit trespass, burglary, home invasion, robbery, assault, battery, kidnapping and murder against musician Isaiah Silva, all in order to take possession of the guitar, which is believed to be worth millions of dollars. Billboard has reached out to Love's rep for comment.
A source close to the family told Billboard, "Frances and the family are prepared to fight with a fury of unprecedented legal force and they will prevail."
Since Cobain filed for divorce from Silva in 2016, the guitar has been the subject of public interest and a point of contention in the couple's settlement. (The rare acoustic-electric 1959 Martin D-18E was produced for just a year before being discontinued and the left-handed Kurt Cobain had its bridge and nut adapted so he could play it upside down.) As the press has followed the matter over the past couple years, Love has spoken out on the subject, calling it a "treasured heirloom of the family" and saying, "It's not [Silva's] to take."
But, according to the suit, the guitar was gifted to Silva by Cobain in 2014 six months before their wedding as a dating anniversary present, marking a sentimental time in their turbulent relationship. The documents go into great depth detailing Sivla's gift to Cobain for the same anniversary -- an extravagant and heartfelt conversion of the couple's spare bedroom designed, essentially, in tribute to Cobain and her interests. The lawsuit also notes that Cobain needed Love's permission to remove the Martin D-18E guitar from storage, as both of their consent was required for such a decision.
As well, it is described that Cobain never showed any interest in or asked that Silva return the guitar when she initially left him in February 2016 and filed for divorce a month later. Yet, according to Silva's suit, once Love and her business manager and so-called "rottweiler" Lutfi got involved, the battle over the guitar -- along with some property rights -- became life-threatening.
Silva and Cobain began dating in 2010 and started living together a year later. But, according to Silva's lawsuit, when Love moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her daughter in 2012, soon after Lutfi began supplying Cobain with narcotics and illicit benzodiazepines, which Cobain and Lutfi referred to as "cookies." Often the drugs would be delivered by Butler in secret, without Silva knowing.
From there, according to Silva, Cobain developed an addiction, which was supported by Lutfi, causing great strain to their relationship and resulting in Silva ending their engagement at one point. In 2014 the couple married, but Cobain's alleged drug use only intensified over the years, leading up to a grand mal seizure later that year that nearly killed Cobain at the couple's home while Silva was there with his young daughter, Arlo. Still, according to the suit, her drug use persisted leading up February 2016 when she disappeared from the couple's home in West Hollywood, California.
As Silva and Cobain worked to amicably settle their divorce without attorneys, the lawsuit says the guitar became a point of contention for Love and Lutfi and the two "became obsessed with finding a way to retrieve the guitar from Silva."
From there, Love, Lutfi, Butler and a chauffeur named Yan Yukhtman allegedly hacked into Silva's iMessage account and sent out messages "making it appear Silva was despondent and on a mental precipice contemplating suicide." This was allegedly part of a plan to commit a home invasion, kidnap Silva, murder him, make it appear to be a suicide and recover the guitar, as well as remove him from claims to the couple's house, another house they had acquired for Silva's daughter Arlo and her mother and any spousal support.
Silva reported the suspicious activity to the Los Angeles Police Department, noting, according to the suit, that it follows "a disturbingly similar pattern and course of conduct to the modus operandi of Lutfi" in various previous harassment cases. From there, things worsens, as Lutfi and Love allegedly began threatening Silva's friends, family and bandmates in attempt to turn them against Silva.
Shortly after midnight on June 3, 2016, according to the lawsuit, Lutfi, Butler and Yukhtman broke into Silva's house and tried to enter his bedroom -- where he had been watching a movie with a friend -- claiming they were the police. Lutfi allegedly yelled at and threatened the friend, telling him to leave, before Butler and Yukhtman pushed him out of the house. Following some struggling, the documents continue, Silvia was overpowered and then threatened to calm down by Lutfi "grabbing Silva's genitals through his pants, and whispered to Silva, 'Listen f----t, calm the fuck down or we'll drag you upstairs and take turns fucking you.' In fear for his life, Silva tried to appear calm and cooperative. However, he claims, Lutfi, Butler and Yukhtman continued to threaten him and physically removed Silva from his Curson Avenue residence against his will," forcing him into the back seat of a Cadillac Escalade outside and driving off.
Silva's friend had been outside calling 9-1-1 from his car and was able to drive ahead of the Escalade, blocking its way on the narrow canyon road trying to prevent Silva's captors from getting away, the suit claims. When police arrived in cars and a helicopter overhead, Silva claims Lutfi "hurriedly concocted a false story intended to prevent LAPD from arresting them" and threatened the lives of Silva's family -- including his 7-year-old daughter Arlo -- if he didn't go along with it. "In shock and fearing for his life and the lives of his family and daughter," Silva agreed to go along with Lutfi's story that they were old college friends and the kidnapping had been a prank.
Were it not for the intervention of Silva's friend and the LAPD, the suit says, "it is believed, based upon facts and evidence, that Silva would have been taken to a secondary crime scene and murdered on June 3, 2016."
The lawsuit also several times tries to draw parallels between the allegedly false narrative Love and her cohorts attempted to establish around Silva with the often-speculated upon death of Kurt Cobain. Silva claims that Kurt Cobain's mother Wendy O'Connor confided in him that she was "keenly aware of the disturbing correlations between his circumstances and those of O'Connor's late son." She also said that she "believed Love to be involved in the alleged suicide of her son, Kurt Cobain."
Once LAPD left the scene, the suit claims Lutfi, Butler, Yukhtman and Silva returned to the house, where Silva was held hostage for several hours while he was threatened repeatedly over the location of the 1959 Martin D-18E guitar. Silva eventually told Lutfi that the guitar was not there because he was in the process of recording with his band. Eventually, Lutfi allegedly changed his tactic to extorting Silva into signing a settlement agreement looking to accomplish the original objectives of their conspiracy with the help of attorney Marc Gans -- demanding Silva agree to surrender the guitar, any claim to the houses and spousal support from Cobain, as well as all photographs and recordings of Cobain he had acquired during their relationship and marriage. In return, Lutfi said he had convinced Love and Cobain to offer him $120,000 if Silva signed the agreement with those terms and the harassment would end. Eventually, Lutfi left the house, where Silva remained to scared to leave on his own.
Later that day, Silva's mother and sister brought him and his daughter Arlo back to their home in Orange County for safety. But Lutfi's harassment and threats continued, according to the suit, as he tried to further pressure Silva into signing the settlement agreement, including stalking him and his family. As well, Lutfi allegedly sought to defame Silva and undermine his claims to the guitar and property. According to the lawsuit, Lutfi caused one of Silva's friends to lose his job at the Chateau Marmot, posted a Craigslist ad with his daughter's puppy advertising a free dog with her mother's phone number attached, and illegally rerouted Silva's mail delivery to his own apartment.
Throughout it all, Silva claims he was afraid to go to the police because of the constant threats and he was convinced by Lutfi that he, Love and Cobain "controlled the LAPD, judicial system, and media." Finally on June 8, 2016, he did file a police report and obtained a temporary restraining order against Lutfi later that month.
Silva and Cobain's divorce was finalized last year and the two reached a settlement agreement earlier this year. Silva's attorney Douglass Unger could not speak to whether the harassment ended entirely following the restraining order, but confirmed that under the settlement agreement Silva retained possession of the guitar, while Cobain won rights to the couple's property and was free from any spousal support. | – If true, there's a Coen brothers movie here somewhere. Courtney Love’s former son-in-law, Isaiah Silva, is accusing Love and two others of attempting to murder him to get Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E guitar, reports Billboard. The guitar was used by Love’s late husband at Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged in New York performance and is the last one he ever played, per Slate. Silva contends that Love’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, gave him the guitar shortly before they married; they divorced in 2016. Silva alleges that Love, former Britney Spears manager Sam Lufti, actor Ross Butler, and chauffeur Yan Yukhtman tried to kill Silva and make it look like a suicide, which would have conveniently freed up the guitar and other shared assets. Silva claims that on June 3, the four broke into Silva’s home and forced him into a car by threatening him with rape and other physical harm. A friend of Silva’s who was in the house at the time called the police, who intercepted the car. Lufti told police the call had been a prank, and Silva did not speak up because he feared for the safety of his 7-year-old daughter, whom Lufti had allegedly threatened to kill if Silva said anything. The alleged attackers then drove Silva back to his house and tried for several hours to get him to sign away his rights to the guitar, other assets, and spousal support. Silva filed a police report five days later. A civil complaint filed in Los Angeles County accuses Love, Lutfi, and Butler of criminal conspiracy to commit trespass, burglary, home invasion, robbery, assault, battery, kidnapping, and murder. "Frances and the family are prepared to fight with a fury of unprecedented legal force, and they will prevail," says someone close to Love's family. (Love has also been in some hot water recently over her taxes.) |
Photo by Alex Trautwig/Getty Images
If you were watching television on 9/11, then you probably remember the early initial reports—later proven false—that a car bomb had exploded outside of the State Department. This mistaken bit of speculation, which spread widely during that day’s chaos, was later used as “evidence” by those who accused the government and media of complicity in the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center.
Twitter has only made the business of news gathering and sharing in the wake of a disaster more treacherous. If, as a wise journalist once said, journalism is the first rough draft of history, then Twitter is the first rough draft of journalism. During nightmarish events like today’s bombings at the Boston Marathon, the micro-blogging service is both the cause of and solution to a whole lot of journalistic problems. Soon after details started to trickle in about the Boston attacks, George W. Bush’s former press secretary Ari Fleischer noted this murkiness with some smart rules for responding to a crisis as a member of the press, a newsreader, and an official government spokesperson:
1. Don't make assumptions.2. Reporting will skyrocket. Items that ppl ignored will now b called in.3. 1st reports will change. "— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) April 15, 2013
4. Don't RT sensational/extreme tweets. Rumors don't help.5. For spokesppl, don't rule 2 much in/out. Wait till you know. "— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) April 15, 2013
Fleischer’s advice is wise, but as the voice behind Slate’s Twitter feed, I have a few more thoughts about what journalists, news organizations, and anyone else with a Twitter account should do during a national tragedy like what happened today in Boston. First, media outlets need to turn off their automated Twitter feeds to ensure that frivolous and/or off-topic items don’t get sent out by mistake. You don’t want to be tweeting about the tax benefits of the state of Texas while limbs are being amputated in Boston if you’re @GovPerry, or—ahem—the latest “Dear Prudence” column if you’re @Slate.
Chicago businesses: Texas is your escape from high taxes and burdensome regulations. governor.state.tx.us/news/press-rel… "— Rick Perry (@GovernorPerry) April 15, 2013
#DearPrudie: "How do I tell my husband that I want to explore extra-marital sex with other women?" slate.me/12fDCnQ — Slate (@Slate) April 15, 2013
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Second, use first-person eyewitness accounts and official sources like the Boston Police department’s Twitter account or official press conferences. Always cite these sources directly, and don’t rely on people who’ve heard something on police scanners—a notoriously unreliable source if you’re looking for solid, confirmed information. Though the wire services are typically the most reliable and first to know, they’ll still get plenty of things wrong in the first few hours of a breaking news frenzy. (The AP filed a false report early in the afternoon, which was picked up by Slate and others, indicating that authorities had shut down cellphone service in Boston in order to prevent remote bomb detonations.) Also, look to local sources. The Boston Globe was one of the best sources of verified information and eyewitness accounts on Twitter and the Web in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
Finally, keep your tone as serious as the occasion merits, even if you are in the business of opinion journalism or cracking snarky jokes. In managing the Slate Twitter account each day, I try to keep the tone very light. But when something like Boston happens, followers want you to convey whatever valuable and accurate information you can find, not make jokes about an awkwardly worded Reuters tweet.*
Now, here’s a much longer list of what not to do.
First, do not pass on speculation. For much of the day, the New York Post was sharing unconfirmed reports, which were later proven erroneous, that 12 people had been killed in the attack. I actually retweeted BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski, one of the smartest and most conscientious journalists on Twitter, and repeated this tidbit on the official Slate account. In hindsight, it would have been wiser for both of us to broadcast that news in more skeptical terms.
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At times, I have succumbed to the desire to be the first source to pass along a story, and I’ve gotten burned. Slate was one of the first outlets to tweet out that we had found the likely Facebook page of the man who was then being reported to be the Newtown shooter, Ryan Lanza. Shortly after that report, it was discovered—by, ironically, the New York Post among others—that the shooter wasn’t Ryan, but his brother Adam. In reporting that CNN’s Susan Candiotti had named Ryan as the shooting suspect, I was very cautious to cite a mainstream source. It turned out that the source was wrong, and this was one of the most embarrassing mistakes I’ve made as a journalist.
Which brings us to point number two: Don’t shame people on Twitter for passing on speculation. Because of the nature of breaking news, factual mistakes will be made and everyone will make them. Let he who is without sin cast the first critical tweet. You might find yourself fact-shaming the New York Post one minute, only to pass on an inaccurate report from Reuters the next. Related to this Twitter sin of shaming, avoid declarations of piety and high-mindedness. They sound self-righteous and glib:
Who wrote, and what human being edited this? RT @lauraolin: Really, is that what it shows twitter.com/lauraolin/stat…
— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) April 15, 2013
[Update: This tweet has since been deleted.]
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Third, don’t use a tragedy to make a political point before the facts are even known. Shortly after the attacks, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tweeted this inanity: “explosion is a reminder that ATF needs a director. Shame on Senate Republicans for blocking apptment.” Probably realizing how his snarkiness sounded under the circumstances, Kristof quickly deleted the tweet and called it a “low blow.” On the right, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin sent out this doozy, comparing the national media’s coverage of Boston to its alleged non-coverage of the Kermit Gosnell abortion case:
Not writing on Boston. It is a local crime story for now. — Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) April 15, 2013
(This was a shot at Rubin’s Post colleague Sarah Kliff, who tweeted last week that she wasn’t writing about Gosnell because, “I cover policy for the Washington Post, not local crime.”)
A lesser version of this most egregious Twitter sin of political point-scoring is to offer political analysis before there’s any actual information available. On his blog today, Slate’s Dave Weigel summed this point up rather nicely. The early hours are the time for the local news media to do reporting, and the national media to do its best possible job of fact gathering and sharing.
Finally, don’t retweet trolls. This may seem like an obvious one, but it can be hard to control yourself. What Alex Jones says is not news. It’s his job to float outrageous conspiracy theories. And our job is to ignore him.
Read more on Slate about the Boston Marathon bombing. ||||| BOSTON/WASHINGTON Investigators have spotted a Boston Marathon bombing suspect from security video taken before two blasts ripped through central Boston on Monday, a law enforcement source said on Wednesday, in what is potentially the biggest break in the case yet.
No arrests had been made, and the suspect in the video had not been identified by name, two government officials said. Police may make an appeal to the public for more information at a news conference scheduled for later on Wednesday, a government source said.
The explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line killed three people and injured 176 others in the worst attack on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001.
The bombings as well as subsequent reports that someone tried to mail the deadly poison ricin to President Barack Obama - the second report of such a letter in two days - have created a climate of uncertainty in the country. Nerves were jolted further by an inaccurate report on cable news network CNN that a bombing suspect had been arrested.
Shortly after CNN retracted its report of an arrest in the case, security officials at Boston's federal courthouse ordered staff, media and attorneys to evacuate due to a security scare and move at least 100 yards away, according to a Reuters reporter on the scene.
Bomb-sniffing dogs, fire engines and heavily armed and helmeted police arrived at the courthouse, which was reopened to employees an hour later.
In Washington, authorities were investigating a letter addressed to the president after the contents preliminarily tested positive for the ricin. Authorities had intercepted a letter sent to Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi on Tuesday that also preliminarily tested positive for ricin.
The FBI said there was no indication of a connection to the Boston bomb attacks, but they reminded Americans of anthrax mail attacks the country in the wake of the September 11 attacks 12 years ago.
THREE FATAL VICTIMS
The bombs in Boston killed an 8-year old boy, Martin Richard; a 29-year-old woman, Krystle Campbell, and a Boston University graduate student and Chinese citizen, Lu Lingzi.
The crowded scene along the race course in central Boston on Monday was recorded by surveillance cameras and media outlets, providing investigators with significant video of the area before and after the two blasts.
Investigators were also searching through thousands of pieces of evidence from cellphone pictures to shrapnel pulled from victims' legs.
Based on the shards of metal, fabric, wires and a battery recovered at the scene, the focus turned to whoever may have placed homemade bombs in pressure cooker pots and taken them in heavy black nylon bags to the finish line of the world-famous race watched by thousands of spectators.
Streets around the bombing site remained closed to traffic and pedestrians on Wednesday, with police continuing their work.
No one had claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Whether it's homegrown or foreign, we just don't know yet. And so I'm not going to contribute to any speculation on that," said Secretary of State John Kerry, who until January was Massachusetts' senior senator. "It's just hard to believe that a Patriots' Day holiday, which is normally such time of festivities, turned into bloody mayhem."
Security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said instructions for building pressure-cooker bombs similar to the ones used in Boston can be found on the internet and are relatively primitive.
Pressure cookers had also been discovered in numerous foiled attack plots in both the United States and overseas in recent years, including the failed bombing attempt in New York's Times Square on May 1, 2010, the officials said.
(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Scott Malone in Boston; editing by Daniel Trotta and Gary Crosse)
(This story was refiled to correct reference to Sept. 11 attacks to 12, not 13, years ago in the 8th paragraph) ||||| Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) (Associated Press)
The two bombs that ripped through the crowds at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding more than 170, were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings, a person briefed on the investigation said Tuesday.
The details on the apparently crude but deadly explosives emerged as investigators appealed to the public for amateur video and photos that might yield clues, and the chief FBI agent in Boston vowed "we will go to the ends of the Earth" to find those responsible.
A person who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on said that the explosives were put in 6-liter pressure cookers, placed in black duffel bags and left on the ground. They were packed with shrapnel to inflict maximum carnage, the person said.
The person said law enforcement officials have some of the bomb components but do not yet know what was used to set off the explosives.
A doctor treating the wounded appeared to corroborate the person's account, saying one of the victims was maimed by what looked like ball bearings or BBs. Doctors also said they removed a host of sharp objects from the victims, including nails that were sticking out of one little girl's body.
At the White House, meanwhile, President Barack Obama said that the bombings were an act of terrorism but that investigators do not know if they were carried out by an international organization, domestic group or a "malevolent individual."
He added: "The American people refuse to be terrorized."
Across the U.S., from Washington to Los Angeles, police tightened security, monitoring landmarks, government buildings, transit hubs and sporting events. Security was especially tight in Boston, with bomb-sniffing dogs checking Amtrak passengers' luggage at South Station and transit police patrolling with rifles.
"They can give me a cavity search right now and I'd be perfectly happy," said Daniel Wood, a video producer from New York City who was waiting for a train.
Similar pressure-cooker explosives have been used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to a July 2010 joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence report. Also, one of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, the intelligence report said.
"Placed carefully, such devices provide little or no indication of an impending attack," the report said.
The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the 2010 attempt in Times Square, has denied any role in the Boston Marathon attack.
The two bombs blew up about 10 seconds and around 100 yards apart Monday near the finish line of the storied, 26.2-mile race, tearing off limbs, knocking people off their feet and leaving the streets spattered with blood and strewn with broken glass. The dead included an 8-year-old boy.
"We started grabbing tourniquets and started tying legs. A lot of people amputated," said Roupen Bastajian, a state trooper from Smithfield, R.I., who had just finished the race when he heard the explosions.
Federal investigators said no one had claimed responsibility for the bombings, which took place on one of the city's biggest civic holidays, Patriots Day.
"We will go to the ends of the Earth to identify the subject or subjects who are responsible for this despicable crime, and we will do everything we can to bring them to justice," said Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston.
He said investigators had received "voluminous tips" and were interviewing witnesses and analyzing the crime scene.
Gov. Deval Patrick said that contrary to earlier reports, no unexploded bombs were found. He said the only explosives were the ones that went off.
FBI agents searched an apartment in the Boston suburb of Revere overnight, and investigators were seen leaving with brown paper bags, plastic trash bags and a duffel bag. But it was unclear whether the tenant had anything to do with the attack.
A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details of the investigation said the man had been tackled by a bystander, then police, as he ran from the scene of the explosions.
But he said it is possible the man was simply running away to protect himself from the blast, as many others did.
At a news conference, police and federal agents repeatedly appealed for any video, audio and photos taken by marathon spectators, even images that people might not think are significant.
"There has to be hundreds, if not thousands, of photos and videos" that might help investigators, state police Col. Timothy Alben said.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said investigators also gathered a large number of surveillance tapes from businesses in the area and intend to go through the video frame by frame.
"This is probably one of the most photographed areas in the country yesterday," he said.
At least 17 people were critically injured, police said. At least eight children were being treated at hospitals. In addition to losing limbs, victims suffered broken bones, shrapnel wounds and ruptured eardrums.
Dr. Stephen Epstein of the emergency medicine department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said he saw an X-ray of one victim's leg that had "what appears to be small, uniform, round objects throughout it _ similar in the appearance to BBs."
Eight-year-old Martin Richard was among the dead, said U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, a family friend. The boy's mother, Denise, and 6-year-old sister, Jane, were badly injured. His brother and father were also watching the race but were not hurt.
A candle burned on the stoop of the family's single-family home in the city's Dorchester section Tuesday, and the word "Peace" was written in chalk on the front walk.
Neighbor Betty Delorey said Martin loved to climb the neighborhood trees, and hop the fence outside his home.
The Boston Marathon is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious races and about 23,000 runners participated. Most of them had crossed the finish line by the time the bombs exploded, but thousands more were still completing the course.
The attack may have been timed for maximum bloodshed: The four-hour mark is typically a crowded time near the finish line because of the slow-but-steady recreational runners completing the race and because of all the friends and relatives clustered around to cheer them on.
Davis, the police commissioner, said authorities had received "no specific intelligence that anything was going to happen" at the race. On Tuesday, he said that two security sweeps of the route had been conducted before the marathon.
The race winds up near Copley Square, not far from the landmark Prudential Center and the Boston Public Library. It is held on Patriots Day, which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution, at Concord and Lexington in 1775.
Richard Barrett, the former U.N. coordinator for an al-Qaida and Taliban monitoring team who has also worked for British intelligence, said the relatively small size of the devices in Boston and the timing of the blasts suggest a domestic attack rather than an al-Qaida-inspired one.
"This happened on Patriots Day _ it is also the day Americans are supposed to have their taxes in _ and Boston is quite a symbolic city," said Barrett, now senior director at the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies.
___
Eileen Sullivan contributed to this story from Washington. Associated Press writers Jay Lindsay, Denise Lavoie, Steve LeBlanc, Bridget Murphy, Rodrique Ngowi and Meghan Barr in Boston; Julie Pace and Lara Jakes in Washington; Paisley Dodds in London and Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee also contributed. ||||| BOSTON — It may be one of the biggest cities in the country, but Boston was a small town on Tuesday as it mourned the losses it suffered in carnage a year ago and honored the sense of community that emerged from the ashes.
“There are no strangers here,” Gov. Deval Patrick said to an overflow audience of 2,700 people at the Hynes Convention Center on Boylston Street. “We are all connected to each other, to events beyond our control, to a common destiny.”
He was addressing families and loved ones, first responders and medical professionals, runners and spectators, all brought together by their ties to last year’s Boston Marathon. One of the best-known sporting events in the world, it turned deadly last year when two homemade bombs, planted close to the finish line, killed three people: Krystle Campbell, 29, Lu Lingzi, 23, and Martin Richard, 8. The bombs wounded 260 others and cost 16 some of their limbs. The two men accused of the bombings are alleged to have killed a fourth person, Sean Collier, 27, a police officer at M.I.T., a few days later.
Continue reading the main story Video
The tribute at the convention center was the central event of a gloomy, rain-soaked, tear-streaked anniversary that began with a wreath-laying ceremony near the finish line and ended with candlelight vigils.
But the evening observances were disrupted when the police saw a man walking barefoot in the rain with a backpack near the finish line on Boylston Street. The police said the man appeared to have a rice cooker in his backpack. Randall Halstead, the police superintendent of the night command, told reporters that the man, in his 20s, was taken into custody and charged with possession of a hoax device and disorderly conduct.
The bomb squad then “rendered” the backpack safe, Mr. Halstead said, creating what sounded like a contained explosion. He said the contents of the backpack were under investigation.
Streets in the area were cleared of pedestrians, and traffic was blocked off for almost three hours.
Earlier, one of the most emotional moments of the day came at the beginning, when Jane Richard, 8, and her brother Henry, 12, helped lay a wreath for Martin, their brother, in front of the Forum restaurant, where one of the bombs went off last year. Jane, her prosthetic leg visible below her dark skirt, briefly touched the wreath, and she and her brother stood quietly for a few moments before turning to their parents for hugs.
At the tribute, Mr. Patrick took note of the few degrees of separation among those at last year’s race. He said that Martin had carried a Deval Patrick campaign sign when Martin was only 2. Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who also spoke at the tribute, had been the boy’s Little League coach.
“It felt like we knew everyone who was hurt, everyone who was suffering,” Mr. Walsh said, reflecting a quirk about Boston — that everyone seems to know everyone else, and if they did not know one another before the marathon, they did now. They have learned their back stories and followed their progress.
The sense of community was evident, too, in the crowds that gathered in the downpour for a flag-raising ceremony at the site of the explosions. Many recognized Carlos Arredondo, the cowboy-hat-wearing bystander who became famous last year when he helped rescue Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs. But Kristen McKenzie, 34, a nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, even recognized someone in the crowd far more anonymous: a man who had stood guard at a makeshift memorial that sprang up after the bombings.
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“He was guarding that, day in and day out, so it was nice to see him,” she said.
Perhaps the most intense bond that has been forged is that among a completely random group of people who had little in common except their enthusiasm for cheering on runners and then the grave injuries they endured.
The survivors have helped one another recover, moving from hospitals to rehabilitation together, some of them forming deep friendships. More than 100 of them even went on a cruise together in December.
“To our fellow survivor community,” said Patrick Downes, speaking from the lectern at the tribute, “what would we do without each other?” Mr. Downes and his new wife, Jessica Kensky, both lost their left legs in the blast.
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Mr. Downes paid homage to the “individual snapshots of grace” he witnessed, mentioning “a department store employee searching for clothing to accommodate medical devices” and couples, wed and unwed, who stayed by each other’s sides throughout their agonies, “in sickness and in health,” he said. “Never has that vow felt so tangible.”
And to those who continue to struggle, despair and face “heart-wrenching surgical decisions,” Mr. Downes said, “don’t forget for a second that we will be there for you in a moment’s notice.”
In that spirit, Thomas M. Menino, who was mayor during last year’s marathon, made what he called a solemn promise. “When the lights dim, the cameras go away, know that our support and love will never waver,” he said. “Whatever you have to do to recover and carry on, know the people of Boston are right there by your side.”
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who spoke last at the tribute, leaned on the lectern and clasped his hands in front of him, saying it was an important day, not just for Boston but for the country because the city had inspired everyone.
“People know all about you,” he said. “They know who you are, they know your pride, they know your courage, they know your resolve.” (He confessed in an aside that he was not a Boston Red Sox fan. To be one where he grew up, he said — in Delaware, as a Phillies fan — would have meant trouble.)
In a rousing finish, Mr. Biden summoned an image of next Monday, when runners will again line up to start the marathon, now in its 118th year.
“You will send a resounding message around the world, not just to the rest of the world but to the terrorists, that we will never yield, we will never cower, America will never ever, ever stand down,” he said. “We are Boston! We are America! We respond, we endure, we overcome and we own the finish line!” | – In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, Twitter was flooded with breaking news—some of which turned out to be erroneous—as well as some journalists using that news to score political points. Journalism has been called "the first rough draft of history," and Twitter has become "the first rough draft of journalism," writes Jeremy Stahl on Slate. As such, the media must abide by some basic rules while using it: Turn off auto-posting: Slate did not, and its Twitter feed (which Stahl oversees) ended up tweeting a Dear Prudence column about threesomes. Use official or first-person sources, and cite them: Ignore people reporting things they heard on police scanners, "a notoriously unreliable source" of confirmed information. Don't tweet speculation: Both Slate and BuzzFeed tweeted a New York Post report that 12 were dead, which turned out to be false. But realize even the best outlets get things wrong: The AP erroneously reported that Boston authorities purposely shut down cell service yesterday; Reuters erroneously reported the JFK Library fire was an explosion (and Slate retweeted it). Don't snark: No one wants to read "jokes about how Republicans are going to blame Obama for this" right now. Don't try to score political points: Similarly, no one wants to read things like what Nicholas Kristof tweeted and quickly removed: "explosion is a reminder that ATF needs a director. Shame on Senate Republicans for blocking apptment." In fact, don't get political at all: In the immediate aftermath of a tragedy like this, reporters should report—not "offer political analysis before there's any actual information available." Don't feed the trolls: Retweeting "outrageous conspiracy theories" is tempting, but just ignore them. But if you find someone else making one of the above mistakes, don't shame them and don't get self-righteous, Stahl writes. "Let he who is without sin cast the first critical tweet. You might find yourself fact-shaming the New York Post one minute, only to pass on an inaccurate report from Reuters the next." Click for his full column. |
This story was updated at 7:10 p.m. ET with comment from Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs put its own interests ahead of its clients in trying to profit off the souring housing market of 2007, documents released Monday show.
The firm, which had profited handsomely off packaging and selling securitized subprime home mortgages to investors during the housing boom, switched directions in early 2007, furiously shedding its home mortgage-linked risk and buying as much insurance as it could, effectively shorting the market throughout the year -- a move that netted the firm "billions and billions" at the expense of its clients, according to the documents released by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
"Goldman Sachs made billions of dollars from betting against the housing market, and it placed those bets in some cases at the same time it was selling mortgage-related securities to its clients," said the committee's chairman, Carl Levin (D-Mich.). "They have a lot to answer for."
Goldman says it always puts its clients' interest first. It's a position the firm has stuck by as Levin's investigation has produced emails and internal documents apparently showing otherwise.
"Our clients' interests always come first," Goldman says on its website.
But by late 2006, company officials, presciently realizing that losses from subprime mortgage-related products would soon begin to mount, began to aggressively reduce the firm's risk. It did so by reducing its inventory of positions, and by betting against subprime-related securities, the documents show.
"A very profitable year was underway," Levin said.
"In 2007, when Goldman Sachs took steps to reduce its inventory of mortgage-related investments, the Goldman Sachs sales force was instructed to sell those investments, including high-risk...securities that Goldman Sachs wanted to get of its books, creating a conflict between the firm's proprietary interests and the interests of its clients," the panel said in a statement.
The firm was "spreading the poison throughout the system," Levin charged, adding that investors had a "reasonable assumption [the securities] were designed to succeed."
One particular security, named Timberwolf I, a collateralized debt obligation of other collateralized debt obligations that were based not on actual home mortgage bonds but instead on those bonds' movements, lost 80 percent of its value within five months of issuance. A senior executive, Tom Montag, remarked in a June 22, 2007, email, "Boy, that timberwo[l]f was one shi**y deal."
That security was rated less than three months prior to Montag's email. He has since left the firm.
Goldman "cannot portray itself as working on behalf of clients," Levin said. It sold securities "that it clearly didn't believe in."
"[D]uring the early summer of 2006 it was clear that the market fundamentals in subprime and the highly levered nature of CDOs was going to have a very unhappy ending," one top executive, Michael Swenson, wrote in September 2007 in his annual self-evaluation.
In a March 2007 memo, the firm noted that it was "Game Over" for subprime as there was an "accelerating meltdown for subprime lenders such as Fremont and New Century."
An email the same month remarked that "overall as a business, we are selling our longs and covering our shorts."
Part of the problem, Levin said, was that Goldman didn't tell its clients it was shorting the market throughout the year -- it waited until the end of the year.
At times, Goldman had a net short position as large as $13.9 billion, according to a memo prepared by Levin's investigators.
In shorting the very securities it was peddling to investors, Goldman told its customers that there were a variety of other investors shorting those securities, investigators said. In at least a few of those instances, though, Goldman was the only party shorting the securities, investigators said, raising questions about possible violations of securities law.
The firm states in its most recent annual report that it "did not generate enormous net revenues by betting against residential related products."
In a statement to the Huffington Post, the firm's top spokesman, Lucas Van Praag, said:
"We respectfully disagree with Chairman Levin's statement. We did not have a big bet against the housing market, as our performance in residential mortgages demonstrates, and we believe we at all times worked appropriately with our clients. We did try to manage our risk, as our shareholders and regulators would expect. There are many lessons from the financial crisis, and we are intent on learning from them. To that end, we support strong regulatory reform to safeguard markets for the future."
Levin says the firm made as much as $3.7 billion shorting the market -- proprietary trades that only benefited the firm, and not its clients. Evidence that the firm was heavily shorting the market -- rather than just hedging its risks -- is overwhelming, investigators said.
"Company documents show the firm taking every opportunity during early 2007 to take short positions against mortgages," the panel said in a statement. "And in reducing its risk, the firm aggressively sold its mortgage holdings to clients.
"Documents show the firm's sales force raising questions about the quality of securities Goldman was trying to unload, and complaints from clients who posted big losses on products Goldman had sold them."
The panel's nearly 18-month-long investigation has yielded about 2 million documents, investigators said. Its hearing examining Goldman Sachs, featuring both current and former executives, begins 10 a.m. ET Tuesday.
READ Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's prepared remarks before the panel below: ||||| “It was one of the worst days of my professional life, as I know it was for every person at our firm,” Mr. Blankfein said. “We have been a client-centered firm for 140 years, and if our clients believe that we don’t deserve their trust we cannot survive.”
Mr. Blankfein will also testify that Goldman did not have a substantial, consistent short position in the mortgage market.
But at the press briefing in Washington, Carl Levin, the Democrat of Michigan who heads the Senate committee, insisted that Goldman had bet against its clients repeatedly. He held up a binder the size of two breadboxes that he said contained copies of e-mail messages and other documents that showed Goldman had put its own interests first.
“The evidence shows that Goldman repeatedly put its own interests and profits ahead of the interests of its clients,” Mr. Levin said.
Mr. Levin’s investigative staff released a summary of those documents, which are to be released in full on Tuesday. The summary included information on Abacus as well as new details about other complex mortgage deals.
On a page titled “The Goldman Sachs Conveyor Belt,” the subcommittee described five other transactions beyond the Abacus investment.
One, called Hudson Mezzanine, was put together in the fall of 2006 expressly as a way to create more short positions for Goldman, the subcommittee claims. The $2 billion deal was one of the first for which Goldman sales staff began to face dubious clients, according to former Goldman employees.
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“Here we are selling this, but we think the market is going the other way,” a former Goldman salesman told The New York Times in December.
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Hudson, like Goldman’s 25 Abacus deals, was a synthetic collateralized debt obligation, which is a bundle of insurance contracts on mortgage bonds. Like other banks, Goldman turned to synthetic C.D.O.’s to allow it to complete deals faster than the sort of mortgage securities that required actual mortgage bonds. These deals also created a new avenue for Goldman and some of its hedge fund clients to make negative bets on housing.
Goldman also had an unusual and powerful role in the Hudson deal that the Senate committee did not highlight: According to Hudson marketing documents, which were reviewed on Monday by The Times, Goldman was also the liquidation agent in the deal, which is the party that took it apart when it hit trouble.
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The Senate subcommittee also studied two deals from early 2007 called Anderson Mezzanine 2007-1 and Timberwolf I. In total, these two deals were worth $1.3 billion, and Goldman held about $380 million of the negative bets associated with the two deals.
The subcommittee pointed to these deals as examples of how Goldman put its own interests ahead of clients. Mr. Levin read from several Goldman documents on Monday to underscore the point, including one in October 2007 that said, “Real bad feeling across European sales about some of the trades we did with clients. The damage this has done to our franchise is very significant.”
As the mortgage market collapsed, Goldman turned its back on clients who came knocking with older Goldman-issued bonds they had bought. One example was a series of mortgage bonds known as Gsamp.
“I said ‘no’ to clients who demanded that GS should ‘support the Gsamp’ program as clients tried to gain leverage over us,” a mortgage trader, Michael Swenson, wrote in his self-evaluation at the end of 2007. “Those were unpopular decisions but they saved the firm hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The Gsamp program was also involved in a dispute in the summer of 2007 that Goldman had with a client, Peleton Partners, a hedge fund founded by former Goldman workers that has since collapsed because of mortgage losses.
According to court documents reviewed by The Times on Monday, in June 2007, Goldman refused to accept a Gsamp bond from Peleton in a dispute over the securities that backed up a mortgage security called Broadwick. A Peleton partner was pointed in his response after Goldman refused the Gsamp bond.
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“We do appreciate the unintended irony,” wrote Peter Howard, a partner at Peleton, in an e-mail message about the Gsamp bond.
Bank of America ended up suing Goldman over the Broadwick deal. The parties are awaiting a written ruling in that suit. Broadwick was one of a dozen or so so-called hybrid C.D.O.’s that Goldman created in 2006 and 2007. Such investments were made up of both mortgage bonds and insurance contracts on mortgage bonds.
While such hybrids have received little attention, one mortgage researcher, Gary Kopff of Everest Management, has pointed to a dozen other Goldman C.D.O.’s, including Broadwick, that were mixes of mortgage bonds and insurance policies. Those deals — with names like Fortius I and Altius I — may have been another method for Goldman to obtain negative bets on housing.
“It was like an insurance policy that Goldman stuck in the middle of the sandwich with all the other subprime bonds,” Mr. Kopff said. “And it was an insurance policy designed to protect them.” | – Goldman Sachs sold investors a mountain of securitized subprime mortgages throughout the housing boom, but when things started to turn sour, they bet against those assets furiously—sometimes while still selling them, according to documents the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee intends to browbeat the company with today. “They have a lot to answer for,” says Chairman Carl Levin. But Goldman insists that it always put clients first, the Huffington Post reports. “If our clients believe that we don’t deserve their trust, we cannot survive,” CEO Lloyd Blankfein will say according to his prepared testimony. But the committee's accusations go beyond the SEC's, the New York Times explains. It details, for example, at least one product Goldman created with the specific intention of betting against it as soon as it was sold. |
poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201512/1991/1155968404_4642152251001_4642106078001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on Wednesday that he had asked for the resignation of the city's police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. PLAYBOOK LIVE Rahm Emanuel: I have no plans to resign 'We have a process called the election. The voters spoke,' the Chicago mayor said to POLITICO, rebuffing calls for his ouster.
Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday that he would not resign, despite growing criticism for what some are calling his botched response to video footage showing a Chicago police officer last year firing 16 times at Laquan McDonald, who was walking away from officers.
"No," he said, during one of several testy exchanges through the course of a nearly hour-long discussion with POLITICO's Mike Allen and POLITICO Illinois' Natasha Korecki. "Because I really so much looked forward to this interview and I wanted to have it. I just felt so good saying that to you. We have a process called the election. The voters spoke. I'll be held accountable for the decisions and actions that I make."
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The Chicago mayor is struggling to quell the controversy, and on Tuesday dismissed police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, even though Emanuel still spoke highly of the police chief's record during a press conference. He also appointed a new "police accountability task force."
While Emanuel and his lawyers have fought for much of the past year to keep the police dashboard video of the October 2014 shooting from public eyes, citing concerns the footage could compromise the investigations into McDonald's death, a Cook County judge's ruling forced the release of the video last week. The outrage was swift, prompting days of protests surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday.
Speaking at the POLITICO Illinois breakfast event in Chicago on Wednesday, Emanuel declined to entertain the notion that he might not have been reelected had the video been released prior to his April runoff election against Jesús "Chuy" Garcia.
He struck a defensive tone in explaining why he did not watch the video before its release to the general public, saying there is a balance of two competing principles.
The first, he said, is the right of the public and the media to see the footage, while the second is to protect the integrity of investigations.
Asked by Korecki why he would wait until more than a year after the shooting to release the video, Emanuel responded that Korecki is "reflecting the immediacy of cable television." Additionally, he said, the issues plaguing Chicago with respect to the relationship between the police and the communities it serves are not unique to the city, but that the town "has its own history and narrative."
Emanuel also responded to comments from the office of Cook County State Attorney Anita Alvarez, which told POLITICO Illinois on Tuesday that they did not tell the city to take up a legal fight to keep the video from the public. “They asked us our position in telephone calls — we said it was not our preference to release it, but it was ultimately their decision because of the FOIA,” Alvarez spokeswoman Sally Daly told POLITICO in the report published Wednesday. “We’re not party to the litigation on the FOIA.”
Emanuel reiterated Wednesday that his only knowledge of details surrounding the video of McDonald's shooting came from testimony from city attorney Stephen Patton delivered in April to the City Council, before the approval of the city's $5 million settlement with the McDonald family.
“I did not see the tape. I know what happened on the tape based on Steve’s testimony and what he had briefed me on," he said.
In a sign of the pressure Emanuel is under, the New York Times late Tuesday issued a scathing editorial entitled “The Chicago Police Scandal” in which the paper said, “All along, Mr. Emanuel’s response, either by design or because of negligence, was to do as little as possible — until the furor caused by the release of the video forced his hand. The residents of Chicago will have to decide whether that counts as taking responsibility.”
Emanuel on Wednesday elaborated on his decision to ask for McCarthy's resignation, saying it had nothing to do with McCarthy's overall performance.
"Well, as I said yesterday and I've said over the two years, a lot of people over a year asked me, or two years, to fire the superintendent," Emanuel said, noting the department achieved the lowest homicide rate in the last 50 years in 2014 and further reductions in that rate, adding that there has been real progress.
"He has become the issue rather than dealing with the issue," Emanuel also said, remarking that while he is "loyal" to McCarthy, he is more loyal to the people of the city of Chicago.
Following Emanuel's announcement, Illinois Attorney Lisa Madigan on Tuesday requested that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division investigate the city's police department practices.
"Chicago cannot move ahead and rebuild trust between the police and the community without an outside, independent investigation into its police department to improve policing practices," Madigan wrote. DOJ has said that it will review the request.
On Wednesday, Emanuel suggested that the city does not need that investigation right now.
And in addressing why he did not plan to attend the ongoing climate talks in Paris, Emanuel said that it was not the right time, "even though I believe in the issue of climate change. It's current and pressing. It's not in the distance, it's now."
"I'm not going to go to Paris, I'll deal with the issue appropriately, consistently do what we need here in the city, consistent with what I think is a tough issue, but I'm going to also deal with the issue that's front and center for the city," he said, listing one-on-one interactions with constituents in grocery and department stores in the last week.
Asked whether he would consider firing any more people, as Rev. Jesse Jackson suggested Tuesday, Emanuel remarked that "this is not the end of the problem but the beginning of the solution."
Further wrongdoing "hasn't been brought to anybody's attention at this point," he told Allen and Korecki. ||||| Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday cancelled his trip to a climate change conference in Paris — and postponed a political fundraiser scheduled for next week — to devote his full attention to the political climate change in Chicago caused by the continuing furor over the Laquan McDonald shooting video.
After firing Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy on Tuesday, Emanuel said the trip was up in the air. He had not yet decided whether to forge ahead with plans to join President Barack Obama, his former boss, and other world leaders in Paris at a global conference on climate change.
The remark sounded almost tone-deaf, considering the heat Emanuel has taken for waiting until one week after the April 7 mayoral runoff to ask the City Council to authorize a $5 million settlement to the McDonald family even before a lawsuit had been filed. The mayor has been further criticized for keeping the incendiary video under wraps until last week and releasing it, only after a judge ordered him to do so.
Overnight, the mayor who promised to listen more and talk less in a second term apparently thought better of it. He cancelled the trip to Paris to do what parochial Chicagoans want their mayor to do in all circumstances, no less during a crisis: Stay home and devote his full attention to solving Chicago’s problems.
“I’ve worked on the issue of environmental policy and climate change and energy my whole public life. We’ve done a lot here in Chicago. We were the last city with two coal fire power plants. We shut `em dn. We have probably one of the largest public and private and private retro-fits going on. I’m proud of that record,” the mayor said during a live interview at Politico.com’s “Playbook Breakfast.”
“That said, obviously this is a challenging time for the city. … It needs sustained effort and part of that sustained effort requires the mayor to be present. … This is not a time for me — even though I believe in the issue of climate change. It’s current and pressing. It’s not in the distance. It’s now — I’m not going to go to Paris….I’m going to deal with the issue that’s front and center for the city.”
Emanuel said he would spend the time he would have spent in Paris doing what he did last weekend: Going to churches, stores and restaurants on the South Side to allow everyday Chicagoans to talk openly with their mayor without the staged intrusion of microphones and cameras.
“I wanted to be in the community on the South Side as we’re dealing with some tough challenges — not for images, but to be able have people directly, without anybody around, talk to me and say what they thought. So they felt free to say what they want and I was just there,” he said.
“I believe in being out and about with the public. I take the train to work twice-a-week so people — not in staged situations — can come up and approach the mayor. I do that — not with the media present so the public doesn’t feel held back — but, with the mayor present, so the public feels they can address me in a more personal way. I’m going to continue to do that through this weekend so I’m out and about talking to people directly, hearing from them, have them directly hear from me and know that I’m listening to what they have to say.”
The $2,500-a-head political fundraiser was originally scheduled for next week to replenish a campaign war chest with $122,000 in unpaid bills after Emanuel spent a record $24 million to get re-elected — before the furor over the Laquan McDonald video.
Emanuel had put out the word about the fundraiser the week before the City Council vote on his tax-laden city budget. It was a shot across the bow to those who believe that a second term will be Emanuel’s last—either because he chooses not to seek re-election or because he is unelectable after socking it to Chicago taxpayers.
The fundraiser has now been rescheduled to a later date, once again to avoid looking crass and tone-deaf.
David Axelrod, who worked together with Emanuel in the Obama White House, said his friend of 30 years made a wise move on both fronts by cancelling the trip to Paris and putting off the blockbuster fundraiser.
“Chicago has an obvious and acute challenge. He needs to stay home and meet it. It’s smart for him to stay. The focus should be on the problem here and nothing else,” Axelrod said.
“This panel he set up needs to produce substantive, meaningful and, hopefully long-lasting reforms. He has a search for a new police chief, a critically important decision. There’s a breach to be healed between community, police and City Hall. There’s plenty of work to be done right here.”
After firing McCarthy, Emanuel was forced to fend off questions about demands for the mayor’s own resignation.
Axelrod served as political consultant to Obama and former Mayor Richard M. Daley and Harold Washington. He was asked what Emanuel needs to do to rebuild trust with black voters who helped elect and re-elect him even after he closed a record fifty public schools.
“The way you rebuild trust is through your actions,” Axelrod said. | – If Rahm Emanuel thought firing his police chief would relieve the pressure on him in Chicago over a police shooting, he learned otherwise Wednesday at a testy breakfast in which he was hit with questions about whether he would resign, reports Politico. "No," was the answer to journalists. "We have a process called the election," he said. "The voters spoke. I'll be held accountable for the decisions and actions that I make." Emanuel is taking heavy criticism over the video showing the death of Laquan McDonald, given that his administration fought to keep it from the public. In a blistering editorial, the New York Times accused the mayor of demonstrating a "willful ignorance" and a "complete lack of comprehension" about the case. "All along, Mr. Emanuel’s response, either by design or because of negligence, was to do as little as possible—until the furor caused by the release of the video forced his hand. The residents of Chicago will have to decide whether that counts as taking responsibility." More fallout: Emanuel canceled a trip to Paris to attend the climate change conference, and he scrapped a fundraiser set for next week, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. |
Nurses and the people that love them have taken to Twitter and other social platforms this week to show support for their profession with the tag #NursesUnite because of critical comments made by a TV host.
During the Miss America pageant this past weekend, Miss Colorado contestant and nurse Kelley Johnson delivered a monologue in her scrubs for the talent portion of the competition.
The silver accessory around her neck glinted in the stage lights, but in a different way from the bling worn by many of the other contestants. In a sight that to many was pretty refreshing amidst a sea of sequins, stilettos and jewels, Johnson emerged onto the stage in blue scrubs and sneakers. She complimented her outfit with the only necklace that goes best with scrubs -- a stethoscope.
Her attire simply reflected what all nurses are required to wear. But apparently, Joy Behar, one of the hosts of "The View," was completely unaware of this fact.
During her monologue, Johnson recited the story of "Joe," an Alzheimer's patient whom Johnson credits with making her realize her impact as his nurse. She describes how she originally felt as if she were "just a nurse," but Joe made her realize that she is so much more than that.
"Why is she wearing a doctor's stethoscope?" Behar asked when Johnson's photo came on the screen behind the hosts, ironically mirroring the very sentiment that Johnson was speaking out against.
"The View" has removed the clip of Behar's comments and the table discussion of Johnson's monologue, but has yet to issue any sort of apology to the nursing profession.
It didn't take long for nurses and the people that love them to take to Twitter. ||||| Story highlights "The View" co-hosts made comments about Miss Colorado, who is a nurse
Joy Behar questioned why she wore "a doctor's stethoscope"
(CNN) Nurses across social media are up in collective arms after comments made on "The View" about a Miss America contestant.
#NursesUnite became a trending topic following a discussion on the daytime talk show about Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson. Johnson, who is a nurse, performed a monologue about her job while dressed in scrubs and wearing a stethoscope around her neck.
The hosts later said their comments were taken out of context.
"The View" co-host Michelle Collins discussed the performance on the show, saying that "there was a girl who wrote her own monologue and I was like 'Turn the volume up, this is going be amazing, let's listen.' She came out in a nurse's uniform and basically read her emails out loud and, shockingly, did not win."
"I swear to God it was hilarious," Collins said. ||||| When you think of a Miss America contestant, a military sergeant and archery expert may not be the first woman who comes to mind.
Theresa Vail is here to change all that. "If there is one thing that competing has taught me, it’s that you need to be unapologetically yourself and not let others dictate how you feel," she wrote in a May 25 post on her personal blog.
Vail, who is competing as Miss Kansas, is a member of the Kansas Army National Guard’s Medical Detachment. She's also a skydiver, boxer and advocate for young girls.
Here are five things you should know about her.
1. She won't be covering up her tattoos during the competition. Vail has tattoos of the Serenity Prayer and a military medical insignia, and she has decided to display them proudly during the swimsuit round. In an August 22 blog post, Vail wrote:
Why am I choosing to bear my tattoos? Reference A; my platform! Empowering women to OVERCOME stereotypes and break barriers. What a hypocrite I would be if I covered the ink. With my platform, how could I tell other women to be fearless and be true to themselves if I can’t do the same?... I am who I am, tattoos and all.
2. She used to race motorcycles, and only stopped after breaking all the fingers in her right hand. She wants to become a dentist, which requires flexible fingers.
3. She's fluent in Chinese. The Kansas State University senior is a double major in Chemistry and Chinese -- the former to help her become a dentist, the latter because she enjoys the challenge. Kim Brom, the business manager for the Miss Kansas pageant, told People magazine: "I've never seen anyone this focused and determined. She has so many different qualities –- she's a hunter, she's in the military, she's fluent in Chinese, she's very educated and, even more than that, she has that unquantifiable star quality."
4. She is the second service member to compete in the Miss America pageant. The first, 2007 Miss Utah Jill Stevens, was a combat medic in Afghanistan.
5. Her drive to inspire young women comes from her experiences being bullied as a child. "It got so bad that I nearly took my own life," Vail told People. "My dad took me hunting with him and it saved my life. Ever since then, I've been an outdoors girl. My passion is empowering girls through male-dominated outdoor sports."
Hmm... maybe we'll actually watch the Miss America pageant this weekend. We'd love to see Theresa Vail dominate, tattoos and all. | – Miss Georgia's singing talent may have helped her win the Miss America crown, but it was Miss Colorado who made waves with her monologue about being a nurse. Kelley Johnson, who ended as second runner-up, appeared on stage in nurse's scrubs and spoke about caring for Alzheimer's patients. "I went over to him and I lifted his head up out of his hands. And I said, 'Joe, I know that this is really hard. But, you are not defined by this disease,'" she said, per ABC Denver. The Alzheimer's Association later thanked Johnson in a tweet, but the ladies of The View weren't wowed. She "came in a nurse's uniform, and basically read emails out loud and shockingly did not win," Michelle Collins said during a segment Monday. "I swear to God it was hilarious." Joy Behar next commented, "Why does she have a doctor's stethoscope around her neck?" One look at The View's Facebook page shows numerous demands for an apology, most using the hashtag #NursesUnite, per the Coloradoan. "It is a NURSE stethoscope too. I use it to listen to a child's lungs," writes one nurse, per E! "Your comments denigrated our most noble profession. You owe all of the nurses of this world an apology." In a post with some 530,000 likes, another nurse notes, "Nursing is a talent. It takes a talented person to put an IV in a dehydrated newborn with veins as fragile as a piece of hair. It takes talent to perform CPR for 2 hours while desperately trying to save someone's child. It takes talent to safely manage a confused and combative patient." She continues, "I'm not at all envious of what you do. I'm sorry I wouldn't want to take a walk in any of your shoes. I'll stick with mine. The shoes of a talentless nurse." (Female nurses face another obstacle every day.) |
The Canadian Press
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- The deaths of endangered blue whales off Newfoundland are a tragic loss but also a rare chance to study the world's largest animal, says the head of the Royal Ontario Museum team that will handle their two carcasses.
"We wish it hadn't happened," Mark Engstrom, deputy director of collections and research for the museum, said Thursday from Toronto. "But this is an incredible opportunity to see one and to work with one."
Engstrom is not, incidentally, worried that the massive corpses that washed ashore on Newfoundland's west coast will explode.
"I think the concerns about that have been overblown -- no pun intended," he said. "It will simply deflate."
Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea announced Thursday that the museum researchers will preserve the two skeletons and collect tissue samples.
It's believed nine of the giant whales, which can reach lengths of 30 metres and weigh up to 180 tonnes, were crushed in thick sea ice last month. Two of the massive bodies beached in the small west coast communities of Trout River and Rocky Harbour near Gros Morne National Park.
Town officials appealed for help with the huge and costly job of removing the carcasses. They raised concerns that the rotting whales pose health hazards and could drive away tourists if left to decompose.
Engstrom said a team of at least 10 assembled by the museum will head to Newfoundland next week. He said they'll use flensing knives to cut through the skin, blubber and skeletal muscles of the two carcasses before dismantling the skeletons.
Flesh and blubber will be disposed of in local dumps, Engstrom said. The bones will be packed into large containers and driven back to Ontario using at least 18-wheel trucks, he added.
The operation is being funded by the museum and will cost tens of thousands of dollars, Engstrom said. He figures it will take at least two weeks once work begins.
Engstrom in the past has helped salvage the remains of a right whale, a fin whale, a sperm whale, a humpback and a killer whale.
"It's a lot of very smelly work. There's nothing that smells worse than a dead whale. They don't smell good to begin with and these have been dead awhile."
Engstrom said tissue samples will be preserved for DNA study and the skeletons will be available to scientists from around the world.
One of the skeletons could ultimately be displayed at the museum if funds are available, he added.
Northwestern Atlantic blue whales are listed as endangered with a population estimated at just 250 before the nine known deaths.
Walter Nicolle, mayor of Rocky Harbour, is relieved to see someone step up. The federal Fisheries Department had said earlier in the week that the carcasses are above the high water mark and therefore provincial responsibility.
"We're only a small town," Nicolle said in an interview. "We don't have a budget large enough to take care of that whale."
Nicolle said a steady stream of visitors has arrived for photos with the carcass as concerns about potential eruptions due to internal methane gas buildup made international headlines.
"If it were to stay there for much longer it would stink up the whole community, I would say." ||||| CTVNews.ca Staff
Residents of two small towns in Newfoundland are worried the giant blue whales that have washed ashore could soon explode, and it appears they’ve been left to dispose of the rotting carcasses themselves.
Three of the mammoth marine mammals beached on the west end of the island, close to Rocky Harbour and Trout River, this past weekend.
In Trout River, a tourist community, a nearly 26-metre-long whale carcass continues to draw interest from curious residents, but the town's manager fears the fascination will soon turn to disgust.
"With the warm temperatures coming on we're really concerned about the smell from this," Emily Butler told NTV on Monday. "We are also concerned with the health aspect of this animal being on the beach line."
As the whale decomposes, its corpse fills with methane gas. Town officials fear that it will continue to swell until it eventually explodes.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said it will likely be up to the local and provincial governments to find a way to dispose of the rotting blue whale carcasses, but Butler said the small town does not have the money or the resources to do so.
"The response we're getting is basically that, this is on the beach and we could naturally let it decompose here," Butler said.
She added that, if the whale pushed back into the ocean, the DFO would consider its potential interference with marine navigation.
The endangered blue whales were among nine that were found dead off Newfoundland's coast earlier this month. The DFO had expected weather patterns and water currents to float the carcasses out to sea.
It's believed the whales drowned or were crushed by heavy ice while feeding.
With a report from NTV's Don Bradshaw ||||| The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto is set to remove one or both of the carcasses of blue whales that washed up in western Newfoundland, Fisheries and Oceans Canada officials announced Thursday.
ROM scientists will travel to Rocky Harbour and Trout River on the northwest coast of Newfoundland soon to preserve the whales’ skeletons and collect tissue samples from the massive marine mammals.
While the whales' ice-locked death was unfortunate — an estimated five per cent of the endangered species population was lost in the event, according to the ROM — it also marks an opportunity for the scientific community.
Scientists from the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto are set to remove one or both of the blue whale carcasses so the mammals' skeletons can be preserved. (Michelle Siu/Canadian Press)
"This is an important opportunity to further our understanding of these magnificent animals and provide an invaluable resource for Canadian science and education now and in the future," said Mark D. Engstrom, the ROM’s deputy director of collections and research.
Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said the government is happy to partner with the ROM to preserve the skeletons. Shea said Canadians will benefit from the chance to study the whales up close.
It’s not immediately clear how long it will take the ROM scientists to get the decomposing whales off the beaches where they washed up. Some blue whales are as long as two school buses,
Residents of Rocky Harbour and Trout River, however, still have concerns the whales may explode due to the gases trapped inside their carcasses.
'I think now people are beginning to realize that how often does a blue whale wash up on your beach? It's pretty awesome to have it there.' - Jenny Parsons, owner of Seaside Restaurant in Trout River
The dead blue whale in Trout River has been expanding since it washed ashore several weeks ago.
Many have also expressed concern with the smell from the rotting whales. But Jenny Parsons, who operates the Seaside Restaurant in Trout River, said some people in town will be sad to see the whale go.
This blue whale carcass was found near Bonne Bay last month. Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials have said they could determine whether the whale was part of the same group of dead whales spotted near Bay St. George earlier this year by taking DNA samples. (Photo courtesy DFO)
"I think now people are beginning to realize that how often does a blue whale wash up on your beach? It's pretty awesome to have it there," said Parsons.
Parsons said she would like to see a blue whale pavilion in western Newfoundland, something she thinks would attract tourists from far and wide. Journalists have been calling all day from around the world, she told CBC Radio's As It Happens, many curious about the possibility of a whale explosion.
Ideally, Parsons said, DFO would move the whale out of the community while it decomposes but then return it. That makes more sense than sending it to Toronto, she said.
"It's not going to be no small feat to move this to Ontario," Parsons said.
Concern growing about Rocky Harbour carcass
The other blue whale carcass has been grounded in Rocky Harbour, located in Gros Morne National Park.
People have been visiting Trout River to catch a sight of the blue whale carcass that washed ashore last month. (CBC)
Mayor Walter Nicolle said that for the first week or so, the whale was a real tourist attraction.
"But right now the whale is starting to smell a bit, so the local people are getting concerned about it," he told CBC News.
At first, Nicolle was told the 20-metre whale was the town's problem. So town officials proceeded to secure a permit to remove the carcass, though Nicolle admitted they are not sure just how to do that.
"I'm a little bit surprised they're going to take it away already."
The loss of nine blue whales has attracted international and national scientific interest. Sample tissue of one whale has been taken to gather scientific data.
In 2010, the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa unveiled a blue whale skeleton.
The museum acquired the remains of the female whale in 1975 after it beached itself in Newfoundland. ||||| Newfoundlanders who want to keep at least one of two giant blue whales that washed ashore on the west coast of the island may get their wish.
The man leading the Royal Ontario Museum’s effort to dismember and transport those remains to Toronto says he must review plans to handle both carcasses.
“My commitment when I came in was to do at least one whale and my hope is to do both of them,” Mark Engstrom, deputy director of collections and research for the museum, said during a break from the huge, smelly job.
“We’re doing the Trout River whale and then I have to reassess my budget and see where I am in terms of whether or not I can actually do the Rocky Harbour whale,” he said.
“I’ve incurred a few expenses that I hadn’t expected so it’s going to be tight to do both whales.”
Those extra costs include towing the first carcass from Trout River to adjacent Woody Point where it could more easily be worked on, Engstrom said. The second body is still resting in shallow water near the Rocky Harbour fish plant in Gros Morne National Park.
They are among nine rare and endangered whales that became trapped in pack ice earlier this spring. It’s believed they were either crushed or drowned as they tried to surface to breathe.
Removing pieces of bone. This one is a piece of the spinal cord. @romtoronto #bluewhale http://t.co/NWktYM92gE —
(@ROMBiodiversity) May 09, 2014
Rocky Harbour Mayor Walter Nicolle had expressed relief when the museum offered to add the whales to its collection and make scientific data available to global researchers. Local officials had raised concerns about health hazards and the impact on crucial tourism if the carcasses were left to rot.
“We’re only a small town,” Nicolle said earlier this month. “We don’t have a budget large enough to take care of that whale.”
But Engstrom, who has dealt with the remains of several other whale species, said even he was surprised at the huge challenge posed by the biggest animal on the planet.
Squawking sea gulls feasted Sunday as Engstrom’s team of museum staff and several local men used flensing knives to remove tonnes of blubber and skeletal muscle from the 23-metre female whale. She is now exposed past her enormous rib cage as her bones are removed, labelled and stored in an 18-wheel truck.
The stench has been powerful enough at times that even seasoned fishermen have gagged.
Woody Point Mayor Ken Thomas approved the messy project as long as it was done in five days, ending Monday. He doubts the community of 300 could have taken on such a task alone.
“Looking at the magnitude of the job and getting to understand the skill sets that are required, it’s highly unlikely that this could have been done with a local effort.
“The cost is certainly piling up.”
Engstrom declined to discuss budget details. But he had said in an earlier interview that expenses to be absorbed by the museum would reach tens of thousands of dollars and he hoped they wouldn’t exceed $100,000.
Local businesswoman Jenny Parsons is part of the new Trout River Blue Whale Committee that wants to establish its own exhibit. The idea that both whales would go to Ontario was seen by many residents as a lost opportunity.
But as the federal government passed responsibility to the province and provincial officials stayed quiet, the museum stepped in.
“It’s this once-in-a-lifetime event and we would hope and keep our fingers crossed that nothing like this ever happens to the blue whale population ever again,” Parsons said in an interview.
“But I believe from the tragic event there can be a very positive outcome for this, not only for the Royal Ontario Museum but also for the town of Trout River.
“With the fishery dying more each day, and with the cutbacks that government is giving us, this blue whale exhibit in the enclave of a national park could be nothing but a positive thing for this little town.”
The big question is who would pay to take responsibility for the second whale.
Parsons’ group hasn’t got to that point yet. They want to start a non-profit corporation and see about raising funds and resources.
Northwest Atlantic blue whales are endangered with an estimated population of just 250 before the nine known deaths. | – Residents of a Newfoundland town can breathe a sigh of relief: It looks like the carcass of a blue whale that washed up on the shores of Trout River might not explode after all. Officials feared it would, as gases swelled the creature's 81-foot-long body, but the whale has since deflated a bit, the town clerk tells the BBC. Now the town just needs to get rid of the 60-ton carcass—there had been, as one official noted earlier this week, some concern "about the smell from this" as warmer temperatures arrived. Fortunately, CTV reports, the Royal Ontario Museum has agreed to help, and will send a 10-person team next week to cut away the skin, blubber, and muscles, which will be dumped, and then take apart the skeleton, which will be transported to Ontario on an 18-wheeler. What does the museum get out of the two-week operation, which will cost tens of thousands of dollars? Quite a bit, says one official: The endangered blue whale is the world's largest animal, and though no one is cheering the death, "this is an incredible opportunity to see one and to work with one," he says, though "it's a lot of very smelly work." The museum will also handle another blue whale carcass that washed up elsewhere in Newfoundland; both whales, along with seven others, are believed to have been crushed in thick sea ice last month. (That's 5% of the estimated population in the Northwest Atlantic, CBC notes.) Tissue samples and skeletons will be studied, and one of the skeletons may eventually be displayed—though scientists won't get all the parts; the Western Star reported earlier this week that someone illegally sawed off one of the whale's flippers. (Some whale carcasses have been known to explode—in one recent case, all over a biologist.) |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Florida man in custody in connection with the package bombs sent to Democratic political figures is a fervent supporter of President Donald Trump with an extensive record of past arrests, including a stint served on probation for making a bomb threat.
Cesar Sayoc, 56, of Aventura is an amateur body builder and businessman whose online resume describes him as a promoter and booking agent for male stripper and burlesque shows. He was born in New York City and attended college in North Carolina before moving to the Miami suburbs in the late 1980s.
He is a registered Republican with social media accounts containing memes supporting Trump, denigrating Democrats, and promoting conspiracy theories about George Soros, the billionaire political donor who was the first targeted this week by a package bomb.
At the auto parts store in Plantation, Florida, where Sayoc was taken into custody, authorities towed away a white van covered with stickers supporting Trump and criticizing media outlets that included CNN, the news channel also targeted by a mail bomb this week.
Court records in Florida show that Sayoc was arrested in 2002 and served a year of probation for a felony charge of threatening to throw or place a bomb. Court records available online did not immediately provide further details about the case, but his lawyer in the case told The Associated Press the case involved a heated conversation with a Florida utility representative.
Ronald Lowy, a Miami attorney, said Sayoc became frustrated about a lack of service and told a Florida Power and Light employee "something to the effect that you're not taking care of my problem and I bet you would if I threw a bomb at you." Lowy said Sayoc showed no ability at the time to back up his threat with any bomb-making expertise.
The lawyer went on to describe Sayoc as "a confused man who had trouble controlling his emotions."
Lowy said Sayoc displayed no political leanings at the time except for plastering a vehicle he owned with Native American signs. Lowy said Sayoc told him his father was Native American.
Sayoc was also convicted in 2014 for grand theft and misdemeanor theft of less than $300, and in 2013 for battery. In 2004, he faced several felony charges for unlawful possession of a synthetic anabolic steroid often used to help build muscles. He also had several arrests for theft in the 1990s and faced a felony charge for obtaining fraudulent refunds and a misdemeanor count of tampering with physical evidence.
Lowy said he recalled that Sayoc also had a run-in with authorities over possession of steroids and another case in Broward County where he was charged with possessing a fake driver's license after altering his birthdate to make him appear younger.
"His mind doesn't seem to operate like most peoples'," Lowy said. "It shows in his anger, his emotion and his behavior."
Sayoc's name is listed on business records tied to dry cleaning and catering businesses. Records also suggest he also had recent financial problems, including filling for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2012.
In court records filed as part of the bankruptcy case, Sayoc was described as having $4,175 in personal property and more than $21,000 in debts. His monthly income at the time was $1,070.
"Debtor lives with mother, owns no furniture," Sayoc's lawyer indicated in a property list. He owned a 2001 Chevy Tahoe with 285,000 miles on the odometer. Most of his debt was from unpaid credit cards opened up in South Florida and banks across the U.S.
Court files show Sayoc completed a financial management course and was discharged from his debts in September 2012. Sayoc's mother, Madeline, also filed for bankruptcy at the same time and was discharged in January 2017. She was not immediately available to respond to phone messages left with her by the AP.
Sayoc's bankruptcy attorney, Christian Olson, declined to comment.
A Twitter account that appears to belong to Sayoc, @hardrock2016, includes memes denouncing Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, including a photo of Soros made to look like he's holding a puppet that resembles Gillum.
Other posts called Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg "fake phony." He posted memes repeatedly attacking Hogg in July. He also called Gov. Rick Scott "greatest Governor Ever" in a posting that shows the Republican governor alongside Trump.
In June, he praised Trump in a birthday message saying: "Happy Birthday President Donald J. Trump the greatest result President ever."
___
Associated Press reporter Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this story.
___
Follow AP investigative reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck ||||| An outspoken supporter of President Trump from South Florida was charged on Friday with sending explosive packages to at least a dozen of the president’s critics, apparently bringing to a close an attempted bombing spree that has gripped the country just ahead of the midterm elections.
The suspect, Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr., 56, was arrested outside an auto parts store near Fort Lauderdale after a fast-moving investigation in which the authorities said they were able to pull a fingerprint from one of the bomb packages and collect Mr. Sayoc’s DNA from two others.
Mr. Sayoc, who seemed to be living out of a van in Aventura, Fla., was taken into custody on a day when four more explosive packages were found, including two intended for United States senators, both Democrats.
A federal criminal complaint spells out his contempt for this week’s many bomb targets, noting that Mr. Sayoc’s van was slathered with images and slogans often found on fringe right-wing social media accounts. ||||| Authorities have arrested 56-year-old Florida resident Cesar Sayoc in connection with more than a dozen suspected mail-bomb devices sent to prominent Democrats and outspoken critics of President Trump this week.
A single fingerprint taken from a mail bomb sent to Rep. Maxine Waters helped investigators get a break in solving a terror plot that targeted senior Democrats and vocal opponents of President Trump, federal officials said.
That clue led investigators on Friday to a white van parked outside an AutoZone shop in Plantation, Fla. The van was plastered with images of Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. It also had pictures of liberal figures in crosshairs.
... | – His name is Cesar Sayoc, he is 56, and he lives in Aventura, Florida. Those were among the first basic facts to emerge Friday after the FBI arrested Sayoc in connection with the string of mail bombs mailed to prominent Democrats earlier in the week. Details and developments: Big supporter: Sayoc appears to be an ardent supporter of the president. The Miami Herald reports that his confiscated white van had pro-Trump stickers and right-wing stickers covering the windows, along with rifle scopes over the faces of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Another sticker said, "CNN Sucks." 'Confused': An attorney familiar with Sayoc calls him "a confused man who had trouble controlling his emotions," per the AP. "His mind doesn't seem to operate like most peoples,'" says Miami attorney Ronald Lowy. "It shows in his anger, his emotion and his behavior." 58 years: Sayoc faces five federal charges: transporting explosives across state lines, illegally mailing explosives, threatening former presidents and others, threatening interstate communications, and assaulting federal officials, reports the Washington Post. He faces up to 58 years in prison, according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Read the complaint against him here. |
Lockheed Martin is developing a hypersonic spy plane, called the SR-72, that will be able to fly at Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound.
A new hypersonic spy plane, capable of flying up to six times faster than the speed of sound, is being developed by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp., according to company officials.
The new aircraft, known as the SR-72, is the unmanned successor to Lockheed's SR-71 Blackbird, a twin-engine, two-seater, supersonic aircraft that was developed in the 1960s. The company's new spy plane will be able to fly twice as fast as the Blackbird and three times faster than current fighter jets, accelerating to Mach 6, which is six times the speed of sound, or more than 3,500 mph (5,600 km/h).
The hypersonic SR-72 also will be able to fly to any location within an hour, which could be revolutionary for the military, said Brad Leland, Lockheed Martin's program manager for hypersonics. [In Photos: The 10 Fastest Military Airplanes]
"Hypersonic is the new stealth," Leland told Reuters. "Your adversaries cannot hide or move their critical assets. They will be found. That becomes a game-changer."
Furthermore, Lockheed is designing the spy plane using existing technology, which could help the company develop a prototype in five or six years for under $1 billion, he added.
Lockheed is aiming to fly a missile to demonstrate the new technology as early as 2018, and Leland said operational SR-72s could be in service by 2030, according to Aviation Week, which was first to report on the new project.
"What we are doing is defining a missile that would have a small incremental cost to go at hypersonic speed," Leland told Reuters.
The SR-72 is being developed by Skunk Works, Lockheed's California-based advanced research program that previously worked on the SR-71 Blackbird and the famed U-2 spy plane.
The hypersonic SR-72 will feature a two-phase propulsion system, which uses a basic jet turbine to accelerate the plane to Mach 3. Lockheed is collaborating with rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne to incorporate this turbine with an air-breathing, supersonic ramjet engine to propel the vehicle from standstill to Mach 6.
The new spy plane will build upon Lockheed's previous experimental hypersonic programs, such as the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, or HTV-2, which was developed as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Falcon Project.
In 2011, the unmanned, arrow-shaped HTV-2 glider reached Mach 20 and controlled itself for approximately three minutes, before crashing into the Pacific Ocean. During the flight, surface temperatures on the vehicle reached 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,930 degrees Celsius), which is hotter than a blast furnace capable of melting steel.
The SR-72's predecessor, the SR-71 Blackbird, could accelerate to Mach 3.3 (more than 2,200 mph, or 3,540 km/h) at an altitude of 80,000 feet (24,400 m). The Blackbird made its first flight in December 1964, and was flown by the U.S. Air Force until 1998. The two-seater aircraft was capable of outracing potential threats during reconnaissance missions, including being able to accelerate and out-fly surface-to-air missiles if it was detected.
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience. ||||| Lockheed Martin's planned SR-72 twin-engine jet aircraft is seen in this artist's rendering provided to Reuters November 1, 2013 by Lockheed Martin.
WASHINGTON Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) unveiled plans on Friday for a hypersonic spy plane that could fly at Mach 6, twice as fast as its famed SR-71 Blackbird, and said a missile demonstrating the new technology could fly as early as 2018.
Brad Leland, the Lockheed engineer who has headed the seven-year research effort, said the new aircraft, dubbed the SR-72, was designed using off-the-shelf materials to keep it affordable in the current tough budget environment.
He said the new plane offered game-changing capabilities to the military - and a twin-engine demonstrator jet that could reach any target in an hour could be developed for under $1 billion in five to six years.
"Hypersonic is the new stealth," Leland told Reuters in an interview. "Your adversaries cannot hide or move their critical assets. They will be found. That becomes a game-changer."
The new aircraft would travel three times as fast as current fighter jets, which can reach speeds of Mach 2, twice the speed of sound, and it could be outfitted with light weapons to strike targets.
Aviation Week first reported Lockheed's work on the project earlier on Friday in a cover article entitled "Son of Blackbird." Lockheed developed the supersonic SR-71 Blackbird, a long-range manned spy plane, 50 years ago. A few of those planes remained in service until 1999.
Details of the new hypersonic spy plane project emerged days after Lockheed, the Pentagon's biggest supplier, teamed up with No. 2 supplier Boeing Co (BA.N) to develop a bid for the Pentagon's new long-range bomber.
Lockheed, Boeing and other big weapons makers are pressing the Pentagon to continue funding new aircraft development programs despite big cuts in military spending, arguing that a retreat from such projects could undercut U.S. military superiority in years to come.
Leland, who works for Lockheed's Skunk Works advanced development arm, said missiles based on the new technology could be ready for operational use in 2020, at a cost only slightly more than the current Tomahawk or JASSM missiles.
Lockheed declined to say how much it had invested in the SR-72 project to date, or what the new airplane might cost if it is ever built. But it said it had tried to keep the current tight budget environment in mind while working on the project.
"What we are doing is defining a missile that would have a small incremental cost to go at hypersonic speed," Leland said. He said about 20 Lockheed employees had worked on the project.
One key factor in keeping the new project affordable was a decision to limit speed to Mach 6, rather than reaching for higher speeds that would require more expensive materials such as those used on the space shuttle, Leland said.
He said top Pentagon officials had been briefed on the program's progress and they were very interested in the new technology as a possible way to counter work by potential adversaries on technologies that could detect stealth aircraft.
He said the company and its partners had developed and tested key components of the proposed new aircraft using their own internal research funding, but the program needed additional funds to move ahead with larger-scale demonstrations of the technologies involved.
Rob Stallard, analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said in a note on Friday that the new aircraft could help the U.S. military quickly identify or hit targets that were intentionally hidden or protected by an enemy's air defenses. He said the previous SR-71 was "the coolest airplane ever made, rivaled only by fictional aircraft."
Leland said Lockheed had worked closely with Aerojet Rocketdyne, a unit of GenCorp Inc GY.N, to develop a propulsion system for the new aircraft, which uses an off-the-shelf turbine with a scramjet engine to reach the hypersonic speeds.
The project builds on HTV-3X, an earlier hypersonic project funded by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that was canceled in 2008 after its turbojet engines were found not ready for further development.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis) ||||| November 01, 2013
Ever since Lockheed’s unsurpassed SR-71 Blackbird was retired from U.S. Air Force service almost two decades ago, the perennial question has been: Will it ever be succeeded by a new-generation, higher-speed aircraft and, if so, when?
That is, until now. After years of silence on the subject, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has revealed exclusively to AW&ST details of long-running plans for what it describes as an affordable hypersonic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike platform that could enter development in demonstrator form as soon as 2018. Dubbed the SR-72, the twin-engine aircraft is designed for a Mach 6 cruise, around twice the speed of its forebear, and will have the optional capability to strike targets.
Guided by the U.S. Air Force’s long-term hypersonic road map, the SR-72 is designed to fill what are perceived by defense planners as growing gaps in coverage of fast-reaction intelligence by the plethora of satellites, subsonic manned and unmanned platforms meant to replace the SR-71. Potentially dangerous and increasingly mobile threats are emerging in areas of denied or contested airspace, in countries with sophisticated air defenses and detailed knowledge of satellite movements.
A vehicle penetrating at high altitude and Mach 6, a speed viewed by Lockheed Martin as the “sweet spot” for practical air-breathing hypersonics, is expected to survive where even stealthy, advanced subsonic or supersonic aircraft and unmanned vehicles might not. Moreover, an armed ISR platform would also have the ability to strike targets before they could hide.
Although there has been evidence to suggest that work on various classified successors to the SR-71, or some of its roles, has been attempted, none of the tantalizing signs have materialized into anything substantial. Outside of the black world, this has always been relatively easy to explain. Though few question the compelling military imperative for high speed ISR capability, the astronomical development costs have made the notion a virtual nonstarter.
But now Lockheed Martin believes it has the answer. “The Skunk Works has been working with Aerojet Rocketdyne for the past seven years to develop a method to integrate an off-the-shelf turbine with a scramjet to power the aircraft from standstill to Mach 6 plus,” says Brad Leland, portfolio manager for air-breathing hypersonic technologies. “Our approach builds on HTV-3X, but this extends a lot beyond that and addresses the one key technical issue that remained on that program: the high-speed turbine engine,” he adds, referring to the U.S. Air Force/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) reusable hypersonic demonstrator canceled in 2008.
The concept of a reusable hypersonic vehicle was an outgrowth of Darpa’s Falcon program, which included development of small launch vehicles, common aero vehicles (CAV) and a hypersonic cruise vehicle (HCV). As structural and aerodynamic technologies for both the CAV and HCV needed testing, Lockheed Martin was funded to develop a series of unpowered hypersonic test vehicles (HTV).
In the midst of these developments, as part of a refocus on space in 2004, NASA canceled almost all hypersonic research, including work on the X-43C combined-cycle propulsion demonstrator. The Darpa HTV effort was therefore extended to include a third HTV, the powered HTV-3X, which was to take off from a runway on turbojet power, accelerate to Mach 6 using a scramjet and return to land.
Despite never progressing to what Leland describes as a planned -HTV-3X follow-on demonstrator that “never was,” called the Blackswift, the conceptual design work led to “several key accomplishments which we didn’t advertise too much,” he notes. “It produced an aircraft configuration that could controllably take off, accelerate through subsonic, supersonic, transonic and hypersonic speeds. It was controllable and kept the pointy end forward,” adds Leland. | – Lockheed Martin is working on an unmanned spy plane that can travel at six times the speed of sound—meaning that no matter where it needs to go, it can be there in an hour, LiveScience reports. The SR-72, under development in California, is a follow-up to the SR-71 Blackbird, developed in the 1960s and used by the US Air Force until 1998. At mach 6—some 3,500mph—the upcoming plane will go twice as fast as its predecessor, and three times as fast as today's fighter jets. "Hypersonic is the new stealth," Lockheed engineer Brad Leland tells Reuters. "Your adversaries cannot hide or move their critical assets. They will be found. That becomes a game-changer." A missile showing off the technology could be ready in five or six years, at a cost of less than $1 billion, he says. But the plane itself will take a little longer. It could be ready for service by 2030, notes Aviation Week via LiveScience. |
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JERUSALEM — Actress Natalie Portman has snubbed a prestigious prize known as the "Jewish Nobel," saying she did not want her attendance to be seen as an endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Portman was to have received the award in Israel in June and said in a statement issued early Saturday that her reasons for skipping the ceremony had been mischaracterized by others, and she is not part of the BDS, a Palestinian-led global movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
News of Portman's decision to skip the event triggered an angry backlash Friday from some in the country's political establishment.
That was due to reports that Portman through a representative had told the Genesis Prize Foundation she was experiencing "extreme distress" over attending its ceremony and would "not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel."
Portman's statement said her decision had been mischaracterized.
"Let me speak for myself. I chose not to attend because I did not want to appear as endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu, who was to be giving a speech at the ceremony," she wrote.
"Like many Israelis and Jews around the world, I can be critical of the leadership in Israel without wanting to boycott the entire nation. I treasure my Israeli friends and family, Israeli food, books, art, cinema, and dance.'"
She asked people to "not take any words that do not come directly from me as my own."
Israel faces some international criticism over its use of lethal force in response to mass protests along the Gaza border led by the Islamic militant group that rules the territory.
One Israeli lawmaker warned that Portman's decision is a sign of eroding support for Israel among young American Jews.
The Jerusalem-born Portman is a dual Israeli-American citizen. The Oscar-winning actress moved to the United States as a young girl, evolving from a child actress into a widely acclaimed A-list star. Portman received the 2011 best actress Academy Award for "Black Swan," and, in 2015, she directed and starred in "Tale of Love and Darkness," a Hebrew-language film set in Israel based on an Amos Oz novel. Her success is a great source of pride for many Israelis.
The Genesis Prize Foundation said Thursday that it had been informed by Portman's representative that "recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing" to Portman, though it did not refer to specific events.
Since March 30, more than three dozen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army fire, most of them in protests on the Gaza-Israeli border. Hundreds more have been wounded by Israeli troops during this time.
Israel says it is defending its border and accuses Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of protests. It has said that some of those protesting at the border over the past few weeks tried to damage the fence, plant explosives and hurl firebombs, or flown kites attached to burning rags to set Israeli fields on fire. Several Israeli communities are located near the Gaza border.
Rights groups have branded open-fire rules as unlawful, saying they effectively permit soldiers to use potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters.
Israel's right-wing Culture Minister Miri Regev said in a statement Friday that she was sorry to hear that Portman "has fallen like a ripe fruit into the hands of BDS supporters," referring to the Palestinian-led boycott movement.
"Natalie, a Jewish actress born in Israel, is joining those who relate to the wondrous success story of Israel's rebirth as a story of 'darkness and darkness'," Regev said.
Rachel Azaria, a lawmaker from the centrist Kulanu party, warned that Portman's decision to stay away is a sign of eroding support for Israel among young American Jews.
"The cancellation by Natalie Portman needs to light warning signs," Azaria said in a statement. "She is totally one of us. She identifies with her Jewishness and Israeli-ness. She is expressing now the voices of many in U.S. Jewry, mainly those of the young generation. This is a community that was always a significant anchor for the state of Israel. The price of losing them could be too high."
Oren Hazan, a legislator in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud Party, called on the government to revoke Portman's Israeli citizenship.
Gilad Erdan, Israel's Public Security Minister said he sent a letter to Portman expressing his disappointment. "Sadly, it seems that you have been influenced by the campaign of media misinformation and lies regarding Gaza orchestrated by the Hamas terrorist group," he wrote.
He invited her to visit and see for herself the situation on the ground.
The Genesis foundation said it was "very saddened" by Portman's decision and would cancel the prize ceremony, which had been set for June 28.
"We fear that Ms. Portman's decision will cause our philanthropic initiative to be politicized, something we have worked hard for the past five years to avoid," it said.
Portman said in her statement that the backlash has inspired her to make numerous contributions to charities in Israel. She pledged to announce those grants soon.
The Genesis Prize was launched in 2013 to recognize Jewish achievement and contributions to humanity. Previous recipients include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Itzhak Perlman and sculptor Anish Kapoor.
When Portman was announced late last year as the 2018 recipient, she said in a statement released by organizers at the time that she was "proud of my Israeli roots and Jewish heritage." ||||| Natalie Portman Denounced by Israeli Government Over Decision Not to Attend Awards
The move, believed to be in response to Israel's recent deadly shooting of Palestinian protestors, has been praised by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Israel's minister for culture and sports has denounced Natalie Portman's decision to decline an award in her homeland of Israel over politics.
"I was saddened to hear that Natalie Portman has fallen as a ripe fruit in the hands of BDS supporters," stated Miri Regev, associating the actress' decision with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. "Natalie, a Jewish actress who was born in Israel, now joins those who refer to the success and wonder of the rebirth of Israel as 'a tale of darkness.'"
Regev's reference was to the Oscar winner's 2015 directorial feature debut A Tale of Love and Darkness, an adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Israeli author Amos Oz that was shot in Jerusalem.
Portman was due to collect the Genesis Prize but pulled out Thursday, with a rep telling event organizers that "recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her and she does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel" and that "she cannot in good conscience move forward with the ceremony."
The Genesis Prize honors notable individuals "who inspire others through their dedication to the Jewish community and Jewish values." Previous Hollywood honorees include actor Michael Douglas and musician Itzhak Perlman. The Genesis Prize Foundation announced Portman as the honoree in November.
News of Portman's decision drew strong reaction on social media, with many taking offense not only at Portman's announcement but its timing, as Israel wrapped up its 70th Independence Day celebration on Thursday.
"She's spitting in her homeland's face on our most celebratory day," read an online comment, while others called Portman's action nothing short of "treason" and "a shameful elitist choice against her fellow countrymen" and "succumbing to BDS movement's ploy."
Some simply suggested the award be given to Gal Gadot, who "represents our country with great honor."
Meanwhile, PACBI, the academic and cultural arm of the BDS movement and a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated pro-Palestinian activist group that seeks to cut global ties with Israel, praised Portman's move.
"After decades of egregious human rights violations against Palestinians, Israel's recent massacre of peaceful protesters in Gaza has made its brand so toxic that even well-known Israeli-American cultural figures, like Natalie Portman, now refuse to blatantly whitewash, or art-wash, Israeli crimes and apartheid policies," it said in a statement.
While Portman declined further comment, the decision comes as an apparent response to mass protests on the Gaza-Israel border that saw scores of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli Defense Forces and more than 1,000 injured, and her ongoing opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Portman's criticism of Netanyahu dates back to his 2015 election day video message on Facebook urging supporters to hurry up and vote as, "The right-wing government is in danger, Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves."
He later apologized, acknowledging, "the things I said a few days ago hurt some Israeli citizens."
"We, who have such a history with anti-Semitism, should understand the danger of racism and of how we treat minorities, and I felt that his comments were very much not showing a Jewish spirit of equality and dignity and peace," said Portman during an interview that year with The News Company's Yonit Levi.
"I think all Israelis know that it's much easier to criticize in Israel than outside, I don't know, it's such a hard combination to be — to obviously have deep love for the place you're from and also see what's wrong with it. So it becomes a tricky thing, certainly increasingly tricky."
Additional reporting by Maya Cohen. | – Israeli-born Natalie Portman has set off a controversy in her native country with a decision to skip a prestigious award ceremony there for political reasons. Portman had been scheduled to travel to Israel in June to receive the Genesis Prize, which NBC News notes is known as the "Jewish Nobel." However, the actress informed prize organizers that she won't be making the trip because she would "not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel." Her rep cited "recent events" without providing specifics, but Portman is believed to be referring to Israel's use of deadly force against unarmed protesters on the border between Israel and Gaza. It's unclear whether Portman will still receive the $1 million in prize money from the Genesis Prize Foundation, which she planned to donate to women's groups, reports the New York Times. Portman has been publicly critical of Benjamin Netanyahu and his polices in the past, and her decision to skip the award ceremony drew condemnation from Israel's minister of culture and sports, notes the Hollywood Reporter. "I was saddened to hear that Natalie Portman has fallen as a ripe fruit in the hands of BDS supporters," said Miri Regev, using the acronym for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel. However, Israeli lawmaker Rachel Azaria said Portman's move signaled that Israel is losing the support of young Jewish people in America. "The price of losing them could be too high," she says. Portman was being recognized for her work in films, including 2015's Tale of Love and Darkness, an adaptation of an autobiographical novel by Israeli author Amos Oz that was set in Israel. Portman starred in the film and directed it. |
UPDATE: Meltzer’s website report on 9/18 reads: Karl Meltzer just set a new Appalachian Trail thru-hike speed record! 2,190 miles. 45 days. 22 hours. 38 minutes. redbull.com/atrun
Look for a complete report on Competitor.com later this week.
On Sept. 18 at 3:38 a.m., professional ultrarunner and Red Bull athlete Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer emerged from the Appalachian Trail’s southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Ga., and set a new Appalachian Trail thru-hike speed record with a time of 45 days 22 hours and 38 minutes. Meltzer started his supported run at 5 a.m. on Aug. 3 from Mt. Katahdin, Maine, and averaged approximately 47 miles per day at a pace of 3.2 miles per hour. Meltzer’s time beats the previous record by more than 10 hours, which was set by Scott Jurek in 2015.
Today’s accomplishment for Meltzer comes after two previous speed record attempts on the Appalachian Trail in 2008 and 2014.
“It’s been a long journey,” Meltzer said. “I’ve been trying to get this record for eight years, and I was finally successful. It just took me three tries to do it. It’s a very special time right now, definitely a stamp on my career.”
The project, in planning for more than two years, was accomplished with a small core crew consisting of Meltzer’s father, Karl Sr., and crew chief Eric Belz. Others joined the crew to support Meltzer for short periods throughout the hike, including Meltzer’s wife and fellow ultrarunners. The crew traveled alongside Meltzer every day, providing him with food, water, medical attention and logistical support. Meals were prepared and taken in a van, which also served as Meltzer and Belz’s sleeping quarters.
“Eric Belz was the best. Karl Senior was amazing,” Meltzer said of his crew. “For the crew, enduring 46 days of this was probably harder for them than it was for me. Without them it wouldn’t have happened.”
Meltzer’s time on the trail typically began around 5 a.m. and ended between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. with several big meals during the day consisting of steak, fried chicken, ice cream, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hamburgers, steamed vegetables, pasta, Red Bull and beer (at dinner). Meltzer averaged 60-70 minutes between the time he came off the trail and when he went to sleep; on a few occasions he slept on the trail itself rather than in his support van.
After completing nearly 46 consecutive days, Meltzer took approximately 4.2 million steps (92,300 avg. per day), burned 345,100 calories (7,500 avg. per day), ran for 678 hours (14.8 avg. per day) and used up 20 pairs of shoes. Meltzer’s crew kept up with him using a satellite-linked SPOT tracker that reported his current location every two-to-three minutes.
Daily updates from Meltzer’s journey are published on www.redbull.com/atrun to give running enthusiasts and fans an intimate look into the daily struggles and successes Meltzer and his crew faced on the trail from preparation until the finish. A camera crew traveled with Meltzer throughout his record-setting thru-hike, and a documentary film will be released in 2017.
The Appalachian Trail runs from Maine to Georgia stretching 2,190 miles through 14 states. It is roughly the distance between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as the crow flies. A thru-hiker will experience 464,500 feet of elevation change, or 16 climbs of Mt. Everest. Thousands of people attempt an Appalachian Trail thru-hike every year, yet only one in four hikers finish the journey, and they typically take five to seven months to complete the entire trail, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
“The highlight of the trail is sitting here (at the end), but it’s also the magic of the place. Just being on the trail is really a highlight,” Meltzer said.
In recent days, Metzler has enjoyed the support of company of former AT record-holder David Horton, as well as support from Jurek, the current record-holder.
“His company on the trail has been greatly appreciated; the strong bond among the ultra community is at work here,” reads the Day 44 update on the Red Bull site that’s tracking his progress. “Karl had ups and downs mentally throughout the day, but physically his body is holding up well. He’s consistently knocked out each crew stop on time, and that allowed him to finish the day with 46 miles before sundown. As he reaches the final days, every ounce of energy counts; every step is critical.”
“It’s crunch time,” the report says. “Whether Karl wants to cut the record close or shatter it is completely in his hands. If his body stays healthy and his crew strong, odds are, Karl will be the next AT record holder. Only the next 48-hours will tell.”
Follow Meltzer’s progress by visiting redbull.com/atrun
RELATED: Karl Meltzer Prepared to Go After AT Record Again ||||| The 41-year-old ultramarathoning legend, with seven Western State Endurance Run wins to his name, calls this latest challenge his “masterpiece.” He expects the attempt to be one of his last endurance feats before retirement.
Jurek will periodically check in with Runner’s World from the trail as he works his way north.
July 7 Trail Update:
To break the Appalachian Trail speed record for a supported thru-hike, Scott Jurek needs to summit Mt. Katahdin in Maine by 5:15 p.m. on Sunday, July 12. With just under 230 miles remaining, Jurek will need to average about 45 miles a day to make it. (Editor's note: A previous version of the map incorrectly said he needed to average 53.4 miles a day.)
Speaking on the phone from the support vehicle at a rest stop in Maine late Tuesday morning, Jurek’s wife, Jenny, told Runner’s World Newswire that Scott's spirits are high, but the long slog is taking a toll on him mentally.
“I think his body is worn down,” Jenny said. “We are trying to stay positive. He is psyched to finish.”
Jurek is still on record pace, but elite ultramarathoner Karl Meltzer, who joined Jurek’s crew for a portion of the trail in June, told Newswire over email that it is going to be close.
“If he breaks the record, I'd say it'll be by less than five hours,” Meltzer said.
As Jurek chronicles his trek on social media, many have noticed he’s lost a lot of weight.
“I know it’s a hot topic,” Jenny said while laughing. According to her, Jurek expected this to happen even with his voracious diet.
“You can’t not lose weight; thru-hikers get emaciated,” she said. His weight loss is not from a lack of eating or his vegan diet. Jenny makes him a fatty smoothie filled with three different kinds of proteins at every stop. She said other hikers have brought vegan desserts and pizza along the route as well.
And besides losing weight, Jurek has picked up another thru-hiking hallmark—the Appalachian Trail beard. “The thru-hikers would not accept him into their tribe without it, but he has a baby face so that is all he can grow,” Jenny said.
July 6 Trail Update:
With more than 250 miles to go, Scott Jurek only has five days to break the Appalachian Trail supported speed record. He reached Maine—the 14th and final state of the 2,189-mile trek—Sunday, the 40th day of his quest.
Jurek hoped to complete the attempt in 42 days, but early injuries slowed him down. He recovered ground in Pennsylvania, but appears to have lost a little momentum this weekend.
With long stretches between rest stops and technical, hilly terrain, the final stretch is often considered the most difficult on the trail. Jurek will have to average at least 53 miles a day to reach the summit of Mt. Katahdin by Sunday, when the current record—which stands at 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes—will pass.
Although if he does, the current record holder for a supported run, Jennifer Pharr Davis, has offered to take him out for a vegan dinner.
(A supported run is one in which a crew provides food and supplies to the runner along the way. The record for an unsupported run–meaning the runner carries all their own gear–is 58 days, nine hours, 38 minutes, set by Matt Kirk in 2013.)
Appalachian Trail Day 39: Perfect temps and views from the Northern Presidential Traverse on Independence Day, I've been looking forward to this section and it did not disappoint. Happy 4th, everyone! #SJAT15 #GoergiaToMaine #EatAndRun Luis Escobar A photo posted by Scott Jurek (@scottjurek) on Jul 4, 2015 at 6:25pm PDT
Appalachian Trail Day 40: Coming to you live from the magic hour in MAINE!!! #SJAT15 #EatAndRun #GeorgiaToMaine A photo posted by Scott Jurek (@scottjurek) on Jul 5, 2015 at 5:13pm PDT
July 3 Update
Jurek continues on record pace. He has completed 12 of the 14 states, with a portion of New Hampshire and Maine still to go.
June 26 Trail Update
After trailing his planned itinerary for nearly three weeks, Scott Jurek is back on pace to complete the Appalachian Trail in fewer than 43 days—a number that would shatter the current record of 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes, set by Jennifer Pharr Davis in 2011. Jurek battled an injured quad and knee during his first week, losing ground as he recovered.
He remained roughly 50 miles behind his goal of finishing the trek in 42 days until this week. Fellow ultramarathoner Karl Meltzer joined Jurek’s crew, encouraging Jurek to put in extra miles every day to bank distance before the final stretch.
Meltzer, who spoke with Runner’s World Newswire last Saturday from a rest stop on the trail, does expect Jurek to fall behind his target pace again because the most difficult portion of the trail is yet to come. Hilly and technical terrain, along with greater distance between support stops, in New Hampshire and Maine may slow Jurek down. But as Meltzer said, the extra miles gained now provide a cushion to break the record, even if Jurek falls off his goal pace.
Appalachian Trail Day 30: Almost through Connecticut and onto Massachusetts tomorrow! #SJAT15 #GeorgiaToMaine #eatandrun A photo posted by Scott Jurek (@scottjurek) on Jun 25, 2015 at 8:23pm PDT
June 20 Trail Update:
From a rest stop along the Appalachian Trail in southern Pennsylvania, Scott Jurek’s wife Jenny Jurek caught up with Runner’s World Newswire. She has been supporting her husband, largely alone, from their modified van in which they sleep, quickly providing fluids and food before he heads back to the trail.
“He’s doing great,” she said. “He’s moving along and it has become more like a routine. He is in a good groove.”
As word continues to spread about Jurek’s record attempt, more people are meeting him along the way. Jenny Jurek said they appreciate the support, but ask that people don’t stop him on the trail for photos or interrupt them while he recovers at the van. This is, after all, still a speed record attempt.
“Sometimes it is difficult for Scott and me to focus with so many people, so he forgets things,” she said. Last week he had to finish a 52-mile day in the dark with only his cell phone flashlight because he forgot to grab a headlamp.
While Jurek is more than halfway to Mount Katahdin in Maine—well on record pace—the trail only gets more difficult. “It’s definitely getting more rocky; everybody calls this Rocksylvania,” Jenny Jurek said.
For the past few days, elite ultramarathoner Karl Meltzer has joined the support crew, helping Jurek push through a few extra miles each night. Meltzer attempted his own Appalachian Trail speed record last year only to drop out after 32 days because he fell off record pace.
“I know exactly what Scott is going through,” Meltzer told Newswire from the rest stop. “The farther you get into this, the faster the days go by. You will wake up and get going and all of a sudden it’s 3 p.m. You just have to tell yourself to keep moving forward.”
Meltzer is planning a new record attempt next summer, but for now he hopes Jurek can make it more of a challenge. He’s encouraged Jurek to put in extra miles now because he knows the pace will slow down in New Hampshire and Maine.
“It’s a different climate. It’s steeper and slippery and there are a lot more miles in between rest stops,” Meltzer said about the final stretch.
On Friday, Jurek logged 60 miles, nearly 10 more than his planned itinerary. He was hoping to beat some bad weather and bank extra miles before the difficult finish.
Live from I-80 over the Delaware River! Thank you Pennsylvania for the rockin' 4 1/2 days, hello New Jersey! #SJAT15 #GeorgiaToMaine #EatAndRun A photo posted by Scott Jurek (@scottjurek) on Jun 22, 2015 at 7:53am PDT
Appalachian Trail Day 20: Started the morning run with an old friend at mile 905.8 in Shenandoah National Park. Karl "Speedgoat" Meltzer has attempted to break the AT record twice and will give it one more go next year. Super psyched to share some miles and catch up with this guy who knows a thing or two about the trail ahead. #SJAT15 #EatAndRun #GeorgiaToMaine A photo posted by Scott Jurek (@scottjurek) on Jun 15, 2015 at 9:44am PDT
How do you spell relief? When it's low to mid 90's and sweltering humidity in Daleville, VA this is how. Virginia is halfway through! #novirginiablues #SJAT15 #eatandrun #GeorgiaToMaine A photo posted by Scott Jurek (@scottjurek) on Jun 11, 2015 at 11:45am PDT
June 9 Trail Update:
Runner’s World Newswire spoke with Jurek by phone this morning as he hiked along a ridge on the Appalachian Trail about 11 miles from Pearisburg, Virginia.
“Things are going well,” he said. Last week Jurek started having pain in his quad and knee, forcing him to scale back mileage and only hike, rather than run sections of the trail. “My quad’s recovered and my knee has been feeling better. I am just trying to keep going forward because I lost a little ground there.”
To heal properly, Jurek said he is icing heavily at night and wearing compression socks and braces to prevent shinsplints. “I look like a mummified runner out there, like a wounded warrior,” he said. “But I am trekking along and my spirits are high.”
From a McDonald’s near Pearisburg, Jurek’s wife Jenny (who was there solely to use the free wifi) also spoke with Newswire. She is leading Jurek’s crew, driving the support van, and meeting him at stops along the trail to replenish his food and fluids.
“He was kind of worried,” she said about Jurek’s injuries. “But now he is feeling more optimistic. He does need to sleep more.”
Both of them are sleeping in the support van in campsites along the trail. She said it has been difficult for him to get proper rest. “He tosses and turns all night.”
But the duo has been amazed by the support. “There have been people in the most remote sections to see him,” Jenny said. “Sometimes they have driven like six hours, so props to them for finding him.” | – Running through 14 states in 45 days, 22 hours, and 38 minutes may be a long and arduous journey, but as of this week it's also the fastest any person has ever completed a supported thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Karl Meltzer, a 48-year-old ultrarunner who also holds a world record for winning 38 100-mile runs, beat the record his friend Scott Jurek, six years his junior, set last year by 10 hours, reports Runner's World. To do this he had to endure a grueling regimen of nearly 50 miles in 15 hours every day, so it's not surprising that he ran through 20 pairs of shoes and, unlike the vegan diet kept by Jurek, indulged in bacon, steak, fried chicken, burgers, ice cream, PB&Js, candy, and at the end of each day, beer, reports Running. "It's been a long journey," he said, quite literally. The Appalachian Trail winds its way 2,190 miles through often rough terrain from Maine to Georgia—which, as the crow flies, is about the distance from Los Angeles to Washington, DC— providing runners with almost 465,000 feet of elevation change (that's like summiting Mt. Everest 16 times, minus the thin air). Of the thousands who attempt the thru-hike each year, one in four makes it and most take six months. Meltzer, who the New York Times reports used to be a ski-resort bartender, endured less than seven hours of sleep a night and, in his final push, covered 83 miles nonstop between Saturday morning and 3:38am Sunday. He celebrated by downing a pepperoni pizza and beer and going straight to sleep. (This woman ran the same stretch in 54 days without a support van.) |
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Is man-flu a quirk of viral evolution? Some viruses might cause weaker symptoms in women than in men because it makes them more likely to spread.
Many infections cause more severe illness in men than women. Men infected with tuberculosis are 1.5 times more likely to die than women; men infected with human papillomavirus are five times more likely to develop cancer than women; and men infected with Epstein-Barr virus are at least twice as likely to develop Hodgkin’s lymphoma as women.
Latest news: Research on male animals prevents women from getting best drugs
Many think this pattern is because of differences between the sexes’ immune systems. But another explanation is that women are more valuable hosts. Women can pass infections to their children during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, so there’s an evolutionary pressure on viruses to be less harmful to them, say Francisco Úbeda and Vincent Jansen at Royal Holloway University of London.
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Mother to child
In order for a virus to infect others, it needs to produce more copies of itself in the body. Making their host ill is an unavoidable consequence of this. “That’s not something a pathogen particularly sets out to do because it’s shooting itself in the foot, should it have one,�? says Jansen.
The researchers used mathematical modelling to show that, for pathogens that affect both sexes, natural selection in theory should favour those that cause less illness in women – as long as they can be transmitted from mother to child.
This evolutionary pressure, they argue, could explain a longstanding puzzle: why human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) progresses to leukaemia much more commonly in Japanese men than Japanese women, but affects both sexes equally in the Caribbean. They argue that this discrepancy is because women breastfeed their babies more commonly and for longer in Japan – giving the virus more opportunity to enter another host.
For this to be the case, though, the virus would have to be able to detect whether it’s inside a man or a woman. We don’t yet know how it would do this, but it’s not impossible, says Jansen. “There are all sorts of hormonal and other pathways that are slightly different between men and women,�? he says.
If we were to identify a mechanism, that would open the possibility of manipulating it. “We could try to make the virus think it’s in a female body rather than a male body and therefore take a different course of action,�? says Jansen.
Sex differences
The study emphasises the need to conduct clinical trials in both sexes, rather than predominantly in men as is often the case, says David Duneau, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Toulouse, France. “The parasites themselves are behaving differently in males and females, so we need to know what they do in both sexes,�? he says.
It’s refreshing to consider pathogen evolution as an alternative explanation for sex differences in diseases, says Sabra Klein, who researches differences in immune responses at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore. But she says the model’s assumptions about HTLV-1 transmission in Japan and the Caribbean ignore other variables – such as ethnicity or culture – that could also be involved.
Jansen now plans to look at animal diseases, such as retroviruses that cause cancer in chickens. “When flocks of chickens are infected with a particular virus, we see that more of the male chickens develop tumours than females,�? he says.
Could selection pressure on viruses bolster men’s claims that they are affected more strongly by colds or flu? It wouldn’t be expected, says Jansen, as mother-to-child transmission isn’t an important route for flu viruses. “To me, man-flu sounds like an excuse for men not to go to work,�? he says.
Journal reference: Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13849 ||||| Viruses, it turns out, have most likely evolved to affect men in more severe ways than women: tuberculosis, papillomavirus, and others have that in common. Now a fresh study has discovered the surprising reason why that might be.
And it’s not because pathogens are sexist. Part of the explanation could be the differences in the two sexes' immune systems. But scientists at the Royal Holloway University of London believe they've made a breakthrough in identifying the main reason - that women are more valuable hosts for the viruses.
The differences in severity are stark. As it turns out, men are 1.5 times more likely to die of tuberculosis than women, twice more likely to develop Hodgkin's lymphoma from the Epstein-Barr virus as well – and a whopping five times more likely to develop cancer if infected with the papillomavirus.
As the researchers point out, we may have the wrong idea about how a virus spreads and what really drives it. The answer, they say, lies in women’s capacity to create life: they’re simply more valuable to the virus than men.
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The aim of a virus is not so much to infect, as it is to replicate itself as many times and within as many hosts as possible. Women win hands down here: with their ability to get pregnant, they inherit several ways of spreading a virus that men do not – from being pregnant to breastfeeding, even during birth itself.
“Viruses may be evolving to be less dangerous to women, looking to preserve the female population,” Dr Francisco Úbeda, a biologist at Royal Holloway, confirms in the press release.
Like other organisms, viruses are subject to natural selection. By using mathematical models, the Royal Holloway scientists posit that virus survival is more likely to happen in the less infected host, especially when the host is pregnant. This is aptly demonstrated in the case of the T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), which has been shown to affect men in Japan more than either sex in the Caribbean.
Why is that? Because traditionally, the Japanese breastfeed for longer, making it a more safe passage from the mother to infant. The virus does not want to infect the woman as much as it wants to be transmitted to the next host.
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Where it gets interesting is the mechanism by which the virus knows whether it is inside a man or a woman. Vincent Jansen of Royal Holloway tells New Scientist that this is where continuing research should lie, as “there are all sorts of hormonal and other pathways that are slightly different between men and women.” And we can only manipulate virus behavior if we understand the mechanism.
“We could try to make the virus think it’s in a female body rather than a male body and therefore take a different course of action,” Jansen adds.
All of this is replicated in animals as well, with chicken populations showing greater propensity for male illnesses than female ones, according to Jansen, who wants research to continue with animals, where that particular sex dynamic has not been studied.
“Survival of the fittest is relevant to all organisms, not just animals and humans. It's entirely probable that this sex-specific virulent behaviour is happening to many other pathogens causing diseases. It's an excellent example of what evolutionary analysis can do for medicine,” Úbeda adds in the press release. ||||| It’s the stuff of The Hot Zone, Outbreak and Contagion: a deadly new virus has emerged from some dark corner of the jungle. While victims succumb to a horrendous death and drop like poisoned flies, virus hunters race to identify patient zero, who turns out to have recently spent time on a pig farm. Those pigs, they discover, are exposed to fruit bat droppings, which rain down from the trees above. Another animal virus made the jump to humans. And while you probably know that such jumps have happened before, brace yourself: Scientists estimate that at least 320,000 such viruses await discovery.
The media is currently abuzz with talk of the MERS coronavirus, which might have originated in bats and then used camels as an additional host. Before that, we had SARS (from small mammals); Nipah virus (fruit bats and pigs); and swine flu. Zoonoses–or illnesses that originate in animals and cross over into humans–account for around 70 percent of all emerging viral diseases, including HIV/AIDS, West Nile and Ebola. Zoonoses originating from mammals are especially problematic. They tend to prove the most readily transmittable to people because the viruses that evolved to exploit our closest furry relatives tend to be most adept at navigating our own warm-blooded bodies. As we encroach upon new tracts of forest where dangerous pathogens may lurk, and then jet-set around the world with the pathogens hitching a ride, the rate of such emerging infectious disease outbreaks is only increasing.
Yet we know very little about “virodiversity,” or the number, types and abundance of viruses in the world. We don’t even have a handle on how many viruses may exist in any given animal species, despite those viruses potentially posing the greatest threat to our lives and economies.
In an ambitious new study from the American Society for Microbiology’s online journal mBio, more than 20 leading virus hunters got together to try and solve this mystery. Rather than just tackle a single species, they decided to take on an entire class of animals: mammals. Collecting samples from all 5,500 known mammals wasn’t an option, so they chose a representative species, the Indian flying fox–a type of bat that is the largest flying mammal in the world and is the carrier of the Nipah virus–to supply their viral data, from which they could then extrapolate to estimate broader diversity among all mammals.
They collected nearly 2,000 samples from flying foxes trapped in Bangladesh (they let the bats go afterwards, unharmed, and wore protective gear to make sure they themselves did not become infected with the next Nipah virus), then performed nearly 13,000 genetic analyses to test for viral traces in those samples. They discovered 55 viruses from nine different families, only five of which–two bocaviruses, an adenovirus, a betacoronavirus, and a gammacoronavirus–were already known to science. Ten of the newly discovered viruses were in the same family as the deadly Nipah virus.
Additionally, a commonly used statistical test allowed the researchers to estimate that their sampling most likely missed three other, more elusive viruses, bringing the flying foxes’ tally to an estimated 58 viruses. From there, they extrapolated this figure to all mammals, calculating that, at minimum, around 320,000 viruses await discovery in these animals.
While several hundred thousand may sound like a lot, that number is much more manageable than the millions of viruses that some researchers supposed might be out there. In fact,, a species richness estimation program they used, called the Chao 2, indicated that samples from just 500 more animals would be needed to discover 85 percent of those 320,000 viruses. On the other hand, discovering the remaining 15 percent, which accounts for only the rarest of the viral bunch, would require more than ten times as many samples. The team calculated that the 85 percent effort would require about $1.4 billion in funding, which sounds like a lot but is only a fraction of the $16 billion that a single disease pandemic, SARS, has cost over the last ten years in economic impacts. Divided over a 10 year period, we could put the mystery of mammalian viruses to rest for just $140 million per year, they write.
“For decades, we’ve faced the threat of future pandemics without knowing how many viruses are lurking in the environment, in wildlife, waiting to emerge,” Peter Daszak, the study’s lead author, said in a statement. “Finally we have a breakthrough–there aren’t millions of unknown virus, just a few hundred thousand, and given the technology we have it’s possible that in my lifetime, we’ll know the identity of every unknown virus on the planet.”
The researchers did make several assumptions in their study. They assumed that 58 is a reasonable estimate for the number of viruses harbored by every mammal species. that viruses are not shared by different hosts. that mammalian viruses only belong within nine families. and that their tests for viral diversity were dependable. They acknowledge that their initial calculation is only a rough estimate, and they plan to repeat the experiment in primates in Bangladesh and bats in Mexico to add more robustness to their figure. Unfortunately, they predict that their estimate of total viral diversity will likely increase with more data.
Aside from elucidating the wondrous diversity of the natural world, discovering and classifying all of these viruses could significantly help humans. Rather than flounder for months trying to discover the origins of a virus–as scientists are still struggling to do with MERS–a central database based on extensive surveys of animals would expedite the process of identifying any new virus that emerges in humans. Knowing where a virus comes from is important for cutting off the source of infection, as demonstrated in the culling of hundreds of thousands of chickens, civets and pigs and other animals in recent viral outbreaks. But snagging the source quickly may allow animal handlers to better isolate tainted populations of animals, allowing the rest to be spared and keeping humans away from those tainted few.
Unfortunately, knowing what viruses are out there cannot prevent an emerging viral disease from striking a wide swath of people. But it can help lessen the blow, for example, by giving researchers more time to develop rapid diagnostic tests for disease intervention and control.
“To quote Benjamin Franklin, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the study’s senior author. “Our goal is to provide the viral intelligence needed for the global public health community to anticipate and respond to the continuous challenge of emerging infectious diseases.” | – It is now well established that many viruses wreak more havoc on men than on women. Examples: Men are five times as likely to develop cancer from HPV as women, twice as likely to develop Hodgkin's lymphoma from the Epstein-Barr virus, and 1.5 times as likely to die of tuberculosis, per New Scientist. Scientists puzzling over why have suggested that women could have stronger immune systems, which would make sense from an evolutionary perspective given the importance of being able to bring offspring to term and nurse them through infancy. But now researchers using mathematical modeling say it might be the viruses themselves that have evolved to behave differently in their hosts depending on sex, and that includes in other animals like chickens, they report in the journal Nature Communications. Viruses spread between hosts by making more copies of themselves. But in doing so, they also make their hosts ill, which doesn't actually behoove them. "That's not something a pathogen particularly sets out to do because it's shooting itself in the foot," says one researcher. Because a virus so easily jumps from mother to fetus or infant, women are the superior host, and thus there is evolutionary pressure to harm them less, Reason reports. How a virus can determine the sex of its host is a mystery, though subtle differences in hormones and other pathways could play a role. If researchers can sort this out, they might be able to trick viruses into thinking they're always infecting women, and get them to go easy on the men, too. (These are the deadliest viruses to infect humans.) |
Here's a look at the compelling events, athletes and storylines of the Sochi Olympics on Friday, Feb. 14.
Alpine Skiing
Men's super combined downhill, 1 a.m. ET -- CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENT LIVE
Men's super combined slalom, 6:30 a.m. ET -- CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENT LIVE
Americans Bode Miller and Ted Ligety could win medals in this event, which starts with one downhill run in the morning and concludes with an afternoon slalom. Miller is the defending Olympic champion. Ligety is the reigning world champion and also won the 2006 Olympic combined (which was one downhill and two slaloms).
If Miller wins a medal, he will move into solo second on the all-time Olympic Alpine medals list with six, trailing Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt, who won eight. Ligety seeks his second Olympic medal.
The top international contenders include Croatia's Ivica Kostelic, 34, who is the reigning Olympic and world silver medalist. He is also the older brother of Janica Kostelic, the most decorated female Olympic Alpine skier ever who is retired. Don't lose sight of France's Alexis Pinturault, either. Both Kostelic and Pinturault will be behind after the downhill.
Even speed racer Aksel Lund Svindal has a shot here. He better be faster than Miller, Ligety and Kostelic in the downhill though. Much faster.
Men's hockey
Czech Republic-Latvia, 3 a.m. ET -- CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENT LIVE
Sweden-Switzerland, 7:30 a.m. ET -- CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENT LIVE
The Czechs and Latvians both lost their openers, so both teams are looking to avoid being the last-place team in Group C.
This is a meeting of three guys who used to face each other in the NHL in the 1990s -- Jaromir Jagr (41, Czech), Petr Nedved (42, Czech) and Sandis Ozolinsh (41, Latvia).
This matchup is for the top spot in Group C after two games. The Swedes are coming off a 4-2 win over the Czechs, while the Swiss blanked the Latvians 1-0 behind Jonas Hiller.
The Swiss have opted not to start Hiller though. Instead, they will go with Reto Berra of the Calgary Flames.
Regardless, Sweden is the favorite here as it hopes to follow a path to its third straight gold at a European Olympics (if we're counting Sochi as a European Games).
Figure Skating
Men's free skate, 10 a.m. ET -- CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENT LIVE
As expected, the top two men in the short program were Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu and Canada's Patrick Chan. Hanyu leads Chan by 3.97 points after breaking his own record with a 101.45-point short program.
Hanyu and Chan are both looking to become their nations' first Olympic men's figure skating champions.
American Jason Brown, is in sixth place but just .98 of a point behind third-place Javier Fernandez of Spain. Brown, who will skate last, could become the youngest Olympic figure skating medalist since Viktor Petrenko in 1988.
The other American, Jeremy Abbott, struggled in his short program for the second straight Olympics and is in 15th, far out of the medal picture.
Russian Yevgeny Plushenko, a four-time Olympic medalist, withdrew prior to his short program with a back injury Thursday.
Women's skeleton runs 3 & 4, 10:40 a.m. ET -- CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENT LIVE
Americans Noelle Pikus-Pace and Katie Uhlaender could both win medals here, but gold will be very tough to grab.
Great Britain's Lizzy Yarnold leads by .44 of a second after two of four runs. She's the World Cup season champion and looking to make it two straight women's skeleton golds for Great Britain after Amy Williams' 2010 title.
Pikus-Pace, who had limited training this week due to a back injury, is in second place. She finished fourth in 2010, retired, had her second child and returned for a final Olympics.
Russian Elena Nikitina came from nowhere for third place Thursday, .55 back of Yarnold. Nikitina, 21, has one career World Cup podium and would be the youngest skeleton medalist since 1928.
Uhlaender is .14 behind Nikitina. She is the 2012 world champion and the silver medalist on this track in a World Cup event last year but hasn't been better than sixth in any World Cup this past season, missing time due to post-concussion effects.
The first two runs of men's singles will precede the women.
Men's hockey
Canada-Austria, 12 p.m. ET -- CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENT LIVE
Norway-Finland, 12 p.m. ET -- CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENT LIVE
Canada eased into the Olympics by beating Norway 3-1 on Thursday. Austria shouldn't pose any threat, either, in its first Olympic men's hockey tournament since 2002.
The key will be how Roberto Luongo fares in net after Carey Price beat the Norwegians. You have to think the man named starter for the group finale against Finland will be in the driver's seat to stay there for the bracket-round games.
Like Canada, Finland should be able to dispose of Norway. It scored eight times on 52 shots against Austria, making up for Tuukka Rask giving up four goals on 20 shots. Finland matched its highest goal output since 1992.
Canada and Finland will likely be playing for Group C supremacy Sunday.
Freestyle Skiing
Women's aerials final, 12:30 p.m. ET -- CLICK HERE TO WATCH EVENT LIVE
China is the world's deepest nation in aerials, which shouldn't be shocking given the gymnastics nature of the flipping, twisting event.
It sends the 2010 Olympic silver medalist, 2013 world champion and two other women who have won World Cup events this season into qualification in the early evening.
The top 12 women overall advance to the first round of finals at 2:30. The top eight from there will go to the second final, and the final four to the last final.
Australia boasts the defending Olympic champion in Lydia Lassila, one of three non-Chinese women to make a World Cup podium in five events this season.
The U.S. has two-time Olympian Ashley Caldwell and three-time Olympian Emily Cook. Caldwell, back from two torn ACLs, was second at the first World Cup event this season. ||||| Norway's Kjetil Jansrud reacts after competing in the men's downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Jeongseon, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) (Associated Press)
Norway's Kjetil Jansrud reacts after competing in the men's downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Jeongseon, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) (Associated Press)
JEONGSEON, South Korea (AP) — Aksel Lund Svindal became the oldest Olympic gold medalist in Alpine skiing by winning the men's downhill on Thursday at the Pyeongchang Games.
The 35-year-old Norwegian was 0.12 seconds faster than teammate Kjetil Jansrud down the 1 4/5-mile (2.9-kilometer) course. Beat Feuz of Switzerland took bronze, 0.18 behind Svindal's winning time of 1 minute, 40.25 seconds.
In what he said was most likely his last Winter Games, Svindal finally got the only downhill honor missing from his resume.
"That's probably my last Olympics, so it's a good thing I could be fast," said Svindal, who had season-ending surgery the past two years. "It's basically the first year I have skied in February in four years."
The race started in near-perfect calm and cold conditions four days after it was postponed because of fierce winds that made racing unsafe. It was 34 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) under sunshine and blue skies with only a few wispy clouds.
In a race that often has a surprise winner, the new Olympic champion has been the most consistent downhill racer over the past decade despite a series of severe injuries. In fact, the three medalists were the most touted pre-race favorites. Jansrud took downhill bronze four years ago and Feuz is the current world champion.
Svindal got silver in downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, where he won a medal of each color, and was fourth at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. He also won world championship gold medals in downhill in 2007 and 2013.
Now, after turning 35 in December, he is three months older than Mario Matt was in 2014 when the Austrian won the Olympic slalom. The oldest Olympic medalist in Alpine racing is Bode Miller, who was 36 when he took bronze in super-G at the Sochi Games.
Svindal excelled on the bottom half of the Jeongseon course after some uneasy moments early in his run.
The snow conditions seemed faster than in training runs, and Svindal worked hard to find the best racing line. He took a tight angle across a tricky side hill, went wide at one turn, and fought through the air off one big jump.
The big Norwegian trailed Feuz by 0.23 at halfway but then mastered the lower section. Svindal punched his left arm air in the finish area upon seeing the clock and the green light next to his name. The only time in the race he had led was the one that mattered.
Jansrud started three minutes later on a course where he won the only previous downhill, an Olympic test event on the World Cup circuit two years ago when Svindal was injured.
Ahead at four straight time checks, Jansrud's lead steadily dropped from 0.43 and he was twisted sideways in midair before landing one jump. He still had 0.04 in hand heading into a twisting approach to the final jump. Jansrud threw his head back in anguish when he saw his time.
Anticipating a great day for Norway, the Scandinavian nation's crown prince, Haakon, came to Jeongseon and watched the race at the finish area.
Feuz, the in-form downhiller in 2018, was unbalanced early in his run. Racing before the Norwegians, he smiled wryly for the television cameras at the finish and wiggled his right hand as if acknowledging his leading time would not hold up.
No man has ever retained the Olympic downhill title and defending champion Matthias Mayer's chance was gone soon after halfway. The Austrian racer finished 1.21 behind Svindal in ninth place.
___
More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org | – Sandro Viletta of Switzerland stunned the favorites and won the Olympic super-combined title today in a spring-like race in which the temperature soared to 55 degrees. Viletta finished in a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 45.20 seconds. Ivica Kostelic of Croatia took the silver medal in this event for the third consecutive Olympics, 0.34 behind, and Christof Innerhofer of Italy took bronze, 0.47 behind, to add to his silver from downhill. It was more bad news for the US: Defending champion Bode Miller made a big mistake during his downhill run and finished sixth, while world champion Ted Ligety had a ragged slalom leg and placed 12th. Ligety had been considered a favorite and both were considered medal contenders. |
Astronaut Sally Ride, mission specialist on STS-7, monitors control panels from the pilot's chair on the Flight Deck of the Space Shuttle Challenger in this NASA handout photo dated June 25, 1983. Floating in front of her is a flight procedures notebook.
Sally Ride, who died today after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, was the first female U.S. astronaut in space and became friends with Tam O'Shaugnessy at the age of 12. It was not until today, however — nearly 50 years after meeting — that their 27-year romantic relationship was made public.
The pioneering scientist was, a statement from Sally Ride Science announced, survived by "Tam O'Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years."
With that simple statement — listed alongside her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin and nephew, Whitney — Ride came out.
Bear Ride, talking with BuzzFeed, said today, "We consider Tam a member of the family."
Saying that her sister was a very private person, Bear Ride said, "People did not know she had pancreatic cancer, that's going to be a huge shock. For 17 months, nobody knew -- and everyone does now. Her memorial fund is going to be in support of pancreatic cancer.
"The pancreatic cancer community is going to be absolutely thrilled that there's now this advocate that they didn't know about. And, I hope the GLBT community feels the same," Bear Ride, who identifies as gay, said.
"I hope it makes it easier for kids growing up gay that they know that another one of their heroes was like them," she added.
Terry McEntee, a spokeswoman from Sally Ride Science, the company Ride formed to provide educational materials and programs for schools, confirmed to BuzzFeed that there had not, to her knowledge, previously been published acknowledgment of Ride and O'Shaugnessy's relationship.
Bear Ride, though, said that her sister "never hid her relationship with Tam. They have been partners, business partners in Sally Ride Science, they've written books together .... Sally's very close friends, of course, knew."
O'Shaugnessy is the chief operating officer and executive vice president for Sally Ride Science, as well as an emeritus professor at San Diego State University. Sally Ride had previously been married to fellow astronaut Steven Hawley in 1982; they divorced in 1987. Ride went into space on two missions, first in 1983 and then again in 1984.
Of Sally Ride's sexual orientation, Bear Ride said, "Sally didn't use labels. Sally had a very fundamental sense of privacy, it was just her nature, because we're Norwegians, through and through."
Calling Ride "a patriot and a pioneer," Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin told BuzzFeed, "For many Americans, coming out will be the hardest thing they ever do. While it's a shame that Americans were not able to experience this aspect of Sally while alive, we should all be proud of the fact that like many LGBT Americans, she proudly served her country, had a committed and loving relationship, and lived a good life."
Of the further implications of today's news, Griffin added: "The fact that Sally Ride was a lesbian will further help round out Americans's understanding of the contributions of LGBT Americans to our country. Our love and condolences go out to her partner."
Asked about those who would have opposed legal recognition of her sister's relationship, Bear Ride bluntly replied, "Who cares about them, really? There are those who are stubbornly ignorant, and if they want to continue in that, God bless them, but probably best not to talk to my family." ||||| I was nine years old when I first wanted to be an astronaut, and my first hero was Sally Ride. I looked up to her as a woman, a scientist, and an astronaut. Sally’s enthusiasm for life, boundless energy, intelligence, and passion for science were constant beacons throughout my formative years. Sally Ride was a trailblazer both for NASA and for working women everywhere. She showed women that they could achieve the same status as their male peers. Sally Ride’s integrity never faltered, even as a woman in a male-dominated profession for much of her career.
You can understand just how sad I was to hear that Sally Ride passed away today, July 23, 2012, after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Sally is survived by her 27-year partner, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy, and her mother, Joyce. Before her official obituary today, Sally had always referred to her partner as “a good friend,” never feeding rumors or speculation as to her sexual preferences, keeping her private life … private.
Born May 26, 1951, Sally Ride grew up wanting to be a scientist. She received four degrees including her PhD in physics from Stanford University in 1977. After answering a newspaper ad for astronaut applicants, Sally Ride became one of the first six women to join the NASA astronaut corp in 1978, beating out most of the other roughly 8000 applicants. During her pre-flight career, she served as Capsule Communicator (CapCom) and worked on developing the shuttle’s famous robotic arm.
On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on STS-7 aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. During her historic flight, she became the first person to ever retrieve a satellite with the robotic arm that she had helped design. Her second flight on STS-41G, also aboard Challenger, took off on October 5, 1984. STS-41G was the first flight to carry a full seven person crew and was tasked with deploying a satellite and performing scientific Earth observations. Sally had spent 343 hours in space and was eight months into the training for her third flight when disaster struck NASA on January 28, 1986. After the Challenger accident, Sally served on the Challenger Accident Investigation Board and was tasked with reviewing mission operations. When the review was finished, she was permanently reassigned to NASA headquarters as special assistant to the administrator for long-range and strategic planning and ultimately became the first Director of the Office of Exploration. In 2003, Ride became the only member of the Columbia accident review board who had also served during the Challenger review.
Listen to Sally describe in her own words what it meant to be the first female American in space and her memories of her experiences in space. This JPL interview was conducted on the 25th anniversary of her historic first flight.
Sally Ride retired from NASA in 1987, and spent much of the next 14 years as a physics professor at UC-San Diego. In 2001, she founded Sally Ride Science, a company dedicated to encouraging boys and girls to peruse STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers. Her company creates exciting and engaging classroom materials, programming, and professional development for teachers in hopes of inspiring children to pursue their scientific dreams. She has written or co-written seven different science books for children.
Sally Ride’s life was filled to the brim with adventure and inspiration. Her legacy will be no different. Her company will continue to inspire children for years to come to pursue their dreams, and her memory will live as a constant reminder to everyone that dreams really do come true. We here at GeekMom want to thank you, Sally, for being an inspiration to us all. ||||| Story highlights Sally Ride, America' first female astronaut, died this week
Meg Urry: For a handful of women, she was an irreplaceable leader
She says Ride was part of a wave of accomplished women who broke through barriers
Urry: In later years, Ride took on science literacy, opening doors for younger women
Sitting in a meeting at NASA's Science Advisory Committee on Monday afternoon, I heard the news that Sally Ride had died. She was important to everyone in that room -- mostly space scientists and NASA officials. But for a handful of women like me, she was an irreplaceable leader.
Sally Ride wasn't the first woman to go into space, or to want to do so, much less the first woman qualified to do so. She would have been the first to tell you that. But as the first U.S. woman in space, on STS-7, the seventh flight of America's new space shuttle, she was the first woman astronaut most Americans knew about. And she used that fame for good.
The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut whose pioneering flight took place only two years after her colleague Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. At NASA, in contrast, there was a 20-year gap between human (male) space flight and Ride's historic flight.
Meg Urry
Her giant step for womankind happened two decades later than it should have. That's why it was so important, especially for those of us women trying to succeed in male-dominated arenas.
As STS-7 blasted off in 1983, I was finishing up my doctorate in physics -- astrophysics, to be more precise -- just as Ride had done a few years earlier. Most of my classmates were men, and I often felt out of place. Whether she shared that sense of being an outsider or not doesn't matter -- the important thing was that, thanks to her notoriety as a NASA astronaut, I found out about one more precious role model, someone in whose steps I could hope to follow. (OK, not the astronaut part -- I am far too chicken for that.) Ride made success seem attainable, even in the men-only world of physics.
Born in 1951, Ride, like all women her age, grew up in a United States led by men, where it was major news if a woman became a pilot, ran for political office or headed a Fortune 500 company.
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She was part of a wave of accomplished women who broke through the barriers. Ride was one of the first six women accepted by NASA for astronaut training in a class of 35 selected in 1978. They were all pioneers, but after the STS-7 crew was announced, Ride's name became a household word.
The press attention at the time was relentless, but she weathered it with evident calm. For a student like me, it was empowering to see such a talented, poised, accomplished woman take on this challenge -- one of the "first woman this-or-that" breakthroughs I had dreamed about as a child.
One of Ride's astronaut classmates, Kathryn Sullivan, became the first American woman to walk in space. In 1984, Sullivan and Ride were crew mates on the STS-41-G flight, Ride's second time in space. Both flights were on the Challenger. Ride was training for her third shuttle flight when the Challenger exploded, on January 28, 1986. That led to a three-year moratorium on NASA human space flight. Ride served on the NASA board investigating the Challenger disaster, then left NASA in 1987. For her, the bloom must have been off the space shuttle rose.
Ride could easily have rested on her laurels. Instead, she took on the great challenge of science literacy, especially for girls. She had gotten her doctorate in physics at a time when few women did so. She knew firsthand the joy of doing science and the satisfaction of helping advance knowledge. That must be one of the reasons she worked toward a world in which other women were encouraged to do science, not pushed away.
In 2001 she started a company, Sally Ride Science, that runs science camps and daylong festivals for middle school girls as well as trains science teachers. Sally Ride Science is a partner in the GRAIL MoonKAM , a camera on NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellite now orbiting the moon, the first NASA flight project dedicated fully to education and public outreach. Her company is also involved with EarthKAM on the International Space Station. The "KAM" in both names stands for Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students -- that was Ride's grail.
In the early 1960s, as NASA was selecting the Mercury 7 to be America's first astronauts, several dozen U.S. women underwent similar evaluation, in secret. A group of women later known as the Mercury 13, including some of the finest aviators of the day, passed the same grueling physical and psychological tests as the Mercury 7. According to Martha Ackmann, author of "The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of 13 American Women and the Dream of Space Flight," some of the women scored better on the tests than their male counterparts of the Mercury 7. But none was ever accepted by NASA for training.
Unlike Ride, the names of the women pilots and would-be astronauts are not widely known today: Jerrie Cobb, Bernice Steadman, Janey Hart, Jerri Truhill, Rhea Woltman, Sarah Ratley, Jan and Marion Dietrich, Myrtle Cagle, Irene Leverton, Gene Nora Jessen, Jean Hixson and Wally Funk. Some 40 years later, happily, they have been celebrated as pioneers and recognized with awards such as the Adler Planetarium's Women in Space Science award in 2005. I suspect these women appreciate the recognition but would rather have done what Ride did. They would rather have flown in space.
Still, 343 hours in space wasn't all that Ride was about. Her true passion was opening doors for younger women, so they can follow their interests and talents without restrictions.
Today, middle school students at Sally Ride Science learn the excitement and fun of science, the thrill and the challenge. Ride got to walk that walk in a big way. Her legacy is that other women do, too.
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Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion. ||||| That wasn't too hard, was it?
But it takes a long time into the NYT obit of Sally Ride for readers to realize that the first American woman in space was a lesbian, and, even then, you have to be alert. Maybe this could have tipped them off:
Dr. Ride was known for guarding her privacy. She rejected most offers for product endorsements, memoirs and movies, and her reticence lasted to the end. At her request, NASA kept her illness secret. In 1983, writing in The Washington Post, Susan Okie, a journalist and longtime friend, described Dr. Ride as elusive and enigmatic, protective of her emotions. “During college and graduate school,” Dr. Okie wrote, “I had to interrogate her to find out what was happening in her personal life.”
Now talk about a buried lede! The only thing preventing the NYT from writing an honest obit is homophobia. They may not realize it; they may not mean it; but it is absolutely clear from the obit that Ride's sexual orientation was obviously central to her life. And her "partner" (ghastly word) and their relationship is recorded only perfunctorily. The NYT does not routinely only mention someone's spouse in the survivors section. When you have lived with someone for 27 years, some account of that relationship is surely central to that person's life. To excise it completely is an act of obliteration. I'm afraid the Beast's tribute is worse. Lynn Sherr manages to write an appreciation which essentially treats Ride as a heterosexual. When Sherr writes this ...
In technological terms, NASA was pushing ahead toward the 21st century. But in human terms, it had finally entered the 20th. And it could not have picked a better pioneer.
... she is referring to Ride's gender, not her sexual orientation. And one often over-looked aspect of this is the long-standing discomfort of some in the feminist movement with lesbians in their midst. Feminists often "inned" lesbian pioneers, or the lesbians closeted themselves. This was not because they were in a reactionary movement; it was because they were in a progressive movement that did not want to be "tarred" with the lesbian image. (Think of Bayard Rustin for a gay male equivalent). Now, of course, Ride chose the closet throughout her life. Given who she was, how independent and brilliant, brave and cool, this is surely testament to how deep homophobia ran in American life. But it may also, as one reader suggests, be part of a welcome shift:
We only know O'Shaugnessy is a female from that vague abstraction - "partner" - and from a parenthetical statement that Ms. O'Shaugnessy was the CEO of the late Ride's company. I have no idea if Ride was out to her friends or out to the public. But this could be another replication of the Anderson Cooper phenomenon - a movement towards a gay equality where people can come out on their own terms, without making what they perceive to be a big deal out of it. Hopefully we're getting to the point where being gay is an utterly unremarkable fact in a great American life.
Another:
I don't always keep up with the latest on who has come out openly, but this certainly came as a surprise to me.
I guess putting this information at the end of the obit is in line with the Times's treatment of sexuality; they certainly would not go out of their way to identify someone as heterosexual other than in listing survivors. That alone shows how far we've come. But are we really in a world where the fact that one of the most respected and pioneering women of the past quarter century was a lesbian is not worthy of mentioning more prominently? According to the obit, Ride was very concerned with promoting women's opportunities in the sciences. She apparently was not as interested in promoting opportunities, or visibility at least, for gays and lesbians (at least, no such efforts are mentioned), which is a shame. But assuming that she was not out before her death, I don't think we can judge this as a failing. We all do what we can, and play the role we are most comfortable with. Now that the information is in the open, the LGBT community has another heroine to claim as our own and celebrate posthumously.
I'm not so understanding. We can judge this decision in the context of Ride's life. Her achievements as a woman and as a scientist and as an astronaut and as a brilliant, principled investigator of NASA's screw-ups will always stand, and vastly outshine any flaws. But the truth remains: she had a chance to expand people's horizons and young lesbians' hope and self-esteem, and she chose not to.
She was the absent heroine.
(Photo: Sally Ride in June 1983, on the shuttle "Columbia." NASA / AP Photo) | – A sample of some of the commentary after the death of Sally Ride, who became the first US woman in space in 1983: Helene McLaughlin, GeekMom: "I was nine years old when I first wanted to be an astronaut and my first hero was Sally Ride," writes the astrophysicist. Her "life was filled to the brim with adventure and inspiration," and the company she founded will continue to inspire young girls. Meg Urry, CNN: She used her "fame for good," writes the Yale professor. Ride could have sat back after her historic shuttle trip, but "instead, she took on the great challenge of science literacy, especially for girls." Her legacy can be found in the youngsters she's still inspiring. Andrew Sullivan, Daily Beast: Her professional achievements may be brilliant, but Sullivan wishes she were more of a trailblazer in her personal life. Ride was lesbian, which didn't become widely known until she died (as BuzzFeed notes). "She had a chance to expand people's horizons and young lesbians' hope and self-esteem, and she chose not to," writes Sullivan. "She was the absent heroine." |
Saudi princess tried to leave hotel without paying
PARIS — A Saudi princess was caught trying to leave the Shangri-La hotel in Paris without settling a six million euro ($7.4 million) bill for her rooms, police said Saturday, confirming a report in the daily Le Parisien.
Maha al-Sudani, the former wife of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz, tried to walk out on 3:30 am Thursday without paying for her suite and those of her 60-strong entourage, prompting staff to call in police, Le Parisien reported.
The Saudi Arabian ambassador was also contacted during the incident, added Le Parisien, which noted that Sudani enjoys diplomatic immunity.
When contacted by AFP, the luxury hotel's director Alain Borgers said that that are "no problems" with its clients and "no unpaid bills" at the moment.
The princess has already had previous run-ins over unpaid bills. In 2009, fashion chain Key Largo went to court to obtain 89,000 euros owed by the princess.
Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Saudi princess tries to flee from €6m hotel bill in Paris
Paris’ Shangri-La hotel, where a Saudi princess tried to leave on without paying a 6m euro bill
Saudi Princess Maha al-Sudani has been stopped by French police as she was trying to sneak out of a luxury hotel in Paris without paying a 6 million-euro bill for the rooms.
Hotel staff called the police as the former wife of Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz was trying to leave the Shangri-La hotel, where she had reserved a 41-room floor since Christmas without paying for her room and those of her 60-strong entourage.She was then stopped as her extensive baggage was being put into a fleet of limousines, Police said on Saturday, confirming the news earlier reported by the media.The Saudi Arabian ambassador was then contacted, as ex-wife of the man second in line to the throne apparently wanted to enjoy diplomatic immunity.The princess and her servants were then offered refuge at the Royal Monceau, a luxuary hotel owned by Emir of Qatar.Sudani has already had a dubious reputation in the luxury businesses in the French capital as she left bills of about 15 million euros for jewels, clothes and hotel rooms unpaid in 2009.She formerly claimed diplomatic immunity in Paris in 2009, when the fashion chain Key Largo took legal action against her to obtain 89,000 euros she owed.Furious King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud then grounded her and confined her to a palace for two years, as she was considered a royal pain in Saudi Arabia.SAB/JR/AZ ||||| Paris police on Saturday confirmed press reports that the princess had tried to do a runner on the swanky Shangri-La hotel on Paris’s posh avenue Iéna, near the Arc de Triomphe.
Interactive map of France
They contacted the Saudi embassy and searched the dozens of bags being carried by her companions.
No charges appear to have been made since Al-Sudani enjoys diplomatic immunity and the hotel said Saturday that it has no unpaid bills at the moment.
The princess already had a dubious reputation in Paris’s luxury establishments after leaving bills of as much as 15 million euros for jewels, clothes and hotel accommodation behind her in 2009.
Then the fashion chain Key Largo went to court to obtain 89,000 euros she owed.
King Abdallah then grounded her, confining her to a palace for two years. But she returned to Paris in 2011, taking over the entire seventh floor of the Shangri-La, 41 suites and rooms, at about 20,000 euros a night.
She had managed to pay about 10 million euros of her bill before her pre-dawn departure.
She reportedly intended to move to the nearby Royal Monceau hotel in the hope that it’s Qatari owners would be more understanding of payment problems. | – Etiquette lesson of the day, folks: Paying for things is generally considered polite, even if you're royalty and have diplomatic immunity. This lesson was apparently lost on Saudi Princess Maha al-Sudani (ex to Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz), who was caught last week trying to sneak out of a luxury hotel in Paris without paying her $7.5 million bill, according to RFI. The hotel staff called the cops when al-Sudani tried to leave at 3:30am with her 60-member entourage, who had taken over a 41-room floor of the Shangri-La since December. When police arrived, al-Sudani was still loading her copious baggage into a bevvy of limousines, according to Press TV. No charges were filed, ostensibly thanks to her diplomatic immunity, but the hotel appears to have gotten its money in the end. When contacted by the AFP, it said it had "no problems" with clients, and "no unpaid bills." The princess, who was "grounded" in a palace for two years by King Abdallah after running up other massive bills in 2009, was eventually given refuge at a hotel owned by the emir of Qatar. |
Fearing a tide of spending by outside conservative groups, President Obama is giving his blessing to a pro-Democratic Party “super PAC” that will work to help his reelection, his campaign said late Monday.
Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a message to supporters that “our campaign has to face the reality of the law as it stands,” which he said gives a large financial advantage to Republicans and their allied groups. Messina said Obama will throw his support to Priorities USA Action, a super PAC founded by two former White House aides that until now has been unable to match its conservative competitors in fundraising.
“We can’t allow for two sets of rules in this election whereby the Republican nominee is the beneficiary of unlimited spending and Democrats unilaterally disarm,” Messina wrote.
Dan Eggen will live chat with readers at 1 p.m. ET on what Obama’s reversal on super PACs means. Submit questions, comments and opinions now.
The move marks a clear political risk for Obama, who has staked much of his political career on opposition to the outsized role of “secret billionaires” and other monied interests while also attempting to win reelection in a struggling economy.
The decision underscores the dramatic changes that have rocked the U.S. political system in the wake of a series of rulings, including Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, that have made it easier for corporations, unions and wealthy individuals to bankroll political advertising and other efforts. The clearest example of the changes have been super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited funds as long as they do not directly coordinate with candidates, who nonetheless can help raise limited amounts of money for them.
Priorities USA raised just $6.7 million in 2011 between its super PAC and related nonprofits, officials have said. That sluggish pace put it far behind its Republican rivals, in part because many major Democratic donors said they did not feel the Obama campaign was supportive of the effort.
Obama has regularly slammed the Citizens United decision as misguided, and complained about super PACs in an interview aired earlier Monday on NBC News. “Unfortunately right now, partly because of Supreme Court rulings and a bunch of decisions out there, it is very hard to get your message out without having some resources,” he said.
Jonathan Collegio, spokesman for American Crossroads, one of the largest Republican-leaning groups, called the shift a “brazenly cynical move by Barack Obama and his political handlers, who just a year ago had the chutzpah to call outside groups a threat to democracy.”
Messina said senior Obama campaign officials as well as some White House and Cabinet officials will attend and speak at Priorities USA fundraising events, but will not solicit donations during the appearances. Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will not appear at any Priorities USA events, he said.
Super PACs have outpaced regular campaigns in the GOP primary race, including one group supporting Newt Gingrich fueled by $11 million from casino magnate Shel Adelson and his family. Many other outside nonprofit groups are also able to spend unlimited funds on elections without having to reveal their donors. ||||| WASHINGTON — President Obama is signaling to wealthy Democratic donors that he wants them to start contributing to an outside group supporting his re-election, reversing a long-held position as he confronts a deep financial disadvantage on a vital front in the campaign.
Aides said the president had signed off on a plan to dispatch cabinet officials, senior advisers at the White House and top campaign staff members to deliver speeches on behalf of Mr. Obama at fund-raising events for Priorities USA Action, the leading Democratic “super PAC,” whose fund-raising has been dwarfed by Republican groups. The new policy was presented to the campaign’s National Finance Committee in a call Monday evening and announced in an e-mail to supporters.
“We’re not going to fight this fight with one hand tied behind our back,” Jim Messina, the manager of Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign, said in an interview. “With so much at stake, we can’t allow for two sets of rules. Democrats can’t be unilaterally disarmed.”
Neither the president, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., nor their wives will attend fund-raising events or solicit donations for the Democratic group. A handful of officials from the administration and the campaign will appear on behalf of Mr. Obama, aides said, but will not directly ask for money.
The decision, which comes nine months before Election Day, escalates the money wars and is a milestone in Mr. Obama’s evolving stances on political fund-raising. The lines have increasingly blurred between presidential campaigns and super PACs, which have flourished since a 2010 Supreme Court ruling and other legal and regulatory decisions made it easier for outside groups to raise unlimited donations to promote candidates.
The Republican National Committee sharply criticized the decision. A spokesman, Joe Pounder, declared: “Yet again, Barack Obama has proven he will literally do anything to win an election, including changing positions on the type of campaign spending he called nothing short of ‘a threat to our democracy.’ ”
The outside groups are playing an increasingly prominent role in the presidential race by running aggressive advertising campaigns, often attacking opponents. Mr. Obama said in 2008 that he did not want support from outside groups and took a strong stand against the influence of special-interest money in politics, effectively shutting down independent activity on his behalf.
For his re-election campaign, he did not object to the formation of Priorities USA Action, which is run by two former White House aides, but until now had done nothing overtly to help the group. His past criticism of outside groups, some Democrats said, had made it hard to persuade donors to back Priorities USA Action, contributing to its problems in keeping up with conservative groups.
“It’s hard to pass the plate for super PAC money while Democratic leaders have been preaching about the sins of it,” said Robert Zimmerman, a New York fund-raiser for Mr. Obama. “But the reality is, it is essential in 2012.”
Several Democratic financiers said they were alarmed last week by fund-raising reports from the major Republican super PACS. Two groups that were formed with help from the Republican strategist Karl Rove, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, raised $51 million between them last year for the Congressional and presidential races. Groups supporting specific Republican presidential candidates brought in roughly $40 million.
But the major Democratic groups, including Priorities USA Action, raised only $19 million for the year. Those lopsided figures led Mr. Messina to send his top network of donors an e-mail last week urging them to raise more money.
“Due to unlimited and unprecedented super Pac spending, we may have no spending advantage (as we did in 2008) and could in fact get outspent,” Mr. Messina wrote in the e-mail. “I thought this might help you put the other side’s efforts into some context as you talk to friends and supporters about why we need their help and we need it now.”
But major donors to Mr. Obama said in interviews that they were not sure the Democratic super PAC’s lackluster fund-raising was due entirely to the president’s public misgivings about outside spending. One longtime, high-dollar Democratic fund-raiser said it was also partly a result of Wall Street’s anger at Mr. Obama’s statements and policies concerning bank regulation, some of which have sent former Obama donors and fund-raisers to the Republicans. | – President Obama has made no secret of his distaste for super PACs, but now he's signaling that his wealthy supporters should feel free to donate to one on his behalf. In a message to supporters yesterday, campaign manager Jim Messina said Obama is now embracing the efforts of Priorities USA Action, a pro-Democrat super PAC formed by two former White House aides, because it's time to "face the reality of the law as it stands"—or hand Republicans a huge financial advantage. Two major Republican super PACs raised $51 million last year between them, while groups supporting individual GOP presidential candidates raised around $40 million. Meanwhile, Priorities USA Action and other big Democratic groups raised just $19 million, the New York Times reports. A spokesperson for one Republican super PAC called Obama's shift a "brazenly cynical move," considering the president once called "outside groups a threat to democracy"—and it certainly is a political risk, the Washington Post notes. As part of the decision, Obama himself will not attend Priorities USA Action events, but senior campaign staffers, White House advisers, and Cabinet officials will. (Click to watch Buzzfeed's "greatest hits" of Obama's attacks on Citizens United.) |
Ready for a shocker? Justin Bieber, 17, is already a baby daddy ... or so says a lawsuit filed by a 20-year-old California woman who claims he's the father of her 3-month-old baby. Star magazine has supposedly acquired the court documents in which the woman alleges -- under penalty of perjury -- that she had sex backstage with J.B. at a concert in Los Angeles when she was 19. She wants him to take a paternity test, and, of course, she wants child support.
Normally, I would dismiss this as just another one of those crazy Hollywood rumors perpetuated by gossip rags, but the crazy thing is that those rumors are often right. Stranger things have been proven true lately -- Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child and Kim Kardashian's 72-day marriage to name a couple. And in The Biebs' own words, "never say never."
So I think it's best that we at least consider that a little Bieber baby may really be out there. Because oh boy, if it's true, it's going to be a life-changer. Here are five shocking ramifications if news that Justin Bieber has fathered a baby is true:
1. Selena Gomez will be bereft. Does she really want to be a stepmother (or "bonus mom" if she wants to borrow some vocab from LeAnn Rimes) at her age? Their young love may get old to her real quick if that's the case. Maybe that's why he's been shelling out the big bucks on romantic gestures -- to ease the blow of what he knew was coming?
2. Baylor! You know, Selena and Justin's new puppy they adopted TOGETHER. Now all of a sudden, he's got a sibling to contend with when he thought he was going to be top dog for a long time. And what if the news causes a split, then he's suddenly the product of a broken home, poor pup.
3. Any belief that Justin was still a virgin would be blown out of the water. The abstinence crowd would be left reeling, and have to find a new poster child ... somewhere.
4. His mother would be so disappointed. It was just last summer that Bieber's mother, Pattie Mallette, was so proudly talking about her son's desire to "stay pure." Last July she said: "[Justin] has expressed his desire to stay pure and honor women and treat women with respect so hopefully that stays that way." If this is true, then it obviously didn't stay that way, and she's a grandma.
5. His concerts will just never be the same. The thought of J.B. back there behind the curtains getting it on is beyond disconcerting.
Do you think Justin Bieber really will turn out to be the father of this woman's baby?
Image via iloveJB123/Flickr ||||| By Jon Boon – Radar Reporter
As Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel settle into married life together, rumors are rife that the pair are getting ready to embrace parenthood.
But despite the ‘Sexy Back’ singer’s grandma Sadie Bomar claiming that her grandson will be a great dad — she says that she doesn’t think he will have kids any time soon — RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.
“Oh, Justin is going to be the best dad. That boy has always been so great with children, and I know Jessica will be a great mother,” Bomar told Radar in an exclusive interview.
PHOTOS: Justin Timberlake And Jessica Biel Tie The Knot In Italy
“I don’t think they will rush it though. I’m not sure they can. They are both away so much that it would be hard to take care of a baby together and I know Justin would want to be there.
“Also, I don’t think I’m ready to be a great-grand-ma-ma just yet!”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Justin, 31, was devastated that his beloved grandparents were unable to attend his lavish Italian nuptials, due to his grandfather William Bomar’s dementia and recovery from intensive heart surgery.
PHOTOS: Justin Timberlake & Jessica Biel Put On A Kiss Cam Show
Unfortunately, the distance from Tennessee to Italy was just too far to make attendance possible, Justin’s maternal grandmother lamented.
“I am so upset I couldn’t be there,” Bomar told Star magazine. “I told Justin I wish I could be but it was just too far. He understood completely.
“My husband had heart surgery and is healing but its better he be [in the nursing home] so people can watch after him. I am always there… before you know it I’ll be in a nursing home too!
PHOTOS: Jessica Biel Shows Off Her Booty In A Sexy Bikini
“I go there every day to check up on him… no one is around and with the wedding everyone is gone, so I needed to be with my husband. Justin and his grandfather are very close. Justin called us the other day and told us how much he loved us. He wishes we could have been there.
“Lynn wants to get him out of the nursing home as soon as she gets back from Italy. Hopefully she won’t be traveling as much so she can help,” Sadie explained.
Despite her health concerns towards her beloved husband, Sadie was keen to reveal how fond the family is of Justin’s blushing bride.
PHOTOS: Justin Timberlake Lists His New York Bachelor Pad
“Lynn has been so excited and it’s all she’s been talking about for months and months and months. We love Jessica,” she gushed.
And Bomar even had kind words for Justin’s ex Britney Spears, but believes he chose the right girl in Jessica.
“I haven’t met many of his girlfriends. I’ve met Jessica a lot and just adore her with Justin. We all love Jessica. She is an all-round girl. I did love Britney too, but that was so long ago. Britney and Justin have grown up and changed a lot since those days. I bet Britney is happy for him though. Britney seems happy on that TV show.
“I don’t think Britney and Jessica are very alike, but Justin liked them for different reasons I suppose,” Sadie revealed.
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Justin Timberlake & Jessica Biel’s $6.5M Wedding: One Of The Most Expensive In Celeb History! ||||| Update, 2:02 a.m. ET: In another Hillsong-related incident, Justin Bieber was involved in a car accident in front of a church event in Beverly Hills, California. The singer was reportedly driving a black truck when he struck at least one photographer, who was taken to a local hospital with “non-life-threatening injuries.”
Original article continues below:
Canada’s prodigal son has always taken his Christianity seriously. Justin Bieber may have peed in a few buckets and lost his virginity along the way, but his road to redemption is apparently back on track. This week, the pop star announced that he would be canceling the remainder of his Purpose world tour. According to a statement on the cherubic crooner’s Facebook page, Bieber would be bowing out “due to unforeseen circumstances.”
“Justin loves his fans and hates to disappoint them,” the statement continued. “He thanks his fans for the incredible experience of the Purpose World Tour over [the] last 18 months."
The star, who was recently banned from performing in Beijing due to his “series of misbehaviors while living abroad and during his performances in China,” seems to be reorienting himself toward only the most wholesome activities. He told TMZ that his post-tour plans are “just resting, getting some relaxation. We’re gonna ride some bikes.” So a 23-year-old multimillionaire would rather be dirt-biking, unwinding, and quietly waiting for more celebrity offspring to turn 18 than subjecting himself to a punishing tour and travel schedule. Nothing unusual going on here, right?
But what you see isn’t always what you get with Justin Bieber. One moment he’s dating Sofia Richie, the next he’s stepping out with Bronte Blampied. First you think he’s canceling his tour to catch up on some R&R, then you realize that his preacher/BFF may have inspired him to sabotage his career for Jesus. At least, that’s what TMZ is claiming. On Tuesday, Hollywood’s least-holy gossip site ran a story explaining that, according to sources connected to Hillsong, Bieber’s church, the singer is taking a professional step back because he has “rededicated his life to Christ.” The update continues, “Bieber’s decision seemed to come out of the blue, but our sources say it was squarely based on what Bieber believes is religious enlightenment.”
Attending more Sunday services is one thing, but opening your own franchise for the Lord is quite another. According to TMZ’s “inside source,” Bieber “may be even planning to start his own church,” which sounds like a magical place where DUIs are automatically stricken from your record and Selena Gomez is always willing to give you a second chance. Unfortunately—shockingly!—the entertainment blogosphere may be getting ahead of itself. Bieber has emphatically denied that his tour cancellation had anything to do with Jesus. According to TMZ, the pop star “seemed perplexed” when a paparazzi asked him if religion played a role in the decision, responding “no” repeatedly.
Of course, the premature ending of the Purpose tour is a bit of a “fuck you” to Bieber’s fans, many of whom have already taken the star into their hearts as their personal lord and savior. Bieber’s relatively mysterious decision becomes even stranger in light of another recent TMZ disclosure. On Wednesday, the website reported that NBA player Kyrie Irving’s controversial trade request from the Cleveland Cavaliers was influenced by Hillsong leader Carl Lentz—Bieber’s very own rock ’n’ roll pastor. According to TMZ, “Church sources tell us Kyrie, who’s been an active member for a long time, met with Lentz earlier this month about his desires to step out of LeBron James’ shadow. We’re told Lentz didn’t tell Kyrie to ‘leave Cleveland’—instead he listened to Kyrie’s concerns, and encouraged him to make the decision he felt was best.” Just over a week ago, Lentz, Bieber, and Irving all hung out together at Dave & Buster’s; now, suddenly, two-thirds of that spiritual squad are making drastic career moves.
So is this celebrity church as cult-y as it sounds? For Bieber, Hillsong, which started as an Australian Pentecostal megachurch in Sydney, and its NYC leader Carl Lentz have constituted his longest continuously running relationship. A 2015 GQ article by Taffy Brodesser-Akner tells the story of Bieber’s first brush with the trendy megachurch. According to the piece, 2014 Justin Bieber—that’s height-of-infamy, egging-his-neighbors Justin Bieber—moved in with Lentz and his family for a month and a half. “One day, according to Carl, Justin looked in the mirror and he was ravaged by feelings of loss. He got on his knees and he cried. ‘I want to know Jesus,’ Justin Bieber sobbed to Pastor Carl. And so together they prayed. Suddenly, Justin was overcome by the Gospel, and he said, ‘Baptize me.’ And Pastor Carl said, ‘Yes, buckaroo’—he really does call Bieber buckaroo, and now you should, too— ‘let’s do this. Let’s schedule a time.’ But Justin Bieber couldn’t be Justin Bieber for one minute longer. ‘No, I want to do it now.’” The almost too-touching-to-be-true story leads to Bieber and Lentz wandering around potential baptism spots, only to find hordes of paparazzi blocking their way at each location. Like a modern-day Mary, J.B., desperate and out of options, finally found his manger: NBA player (and friend of the church) Tyson Chandler’s huge Upper West Side bathtub.
It’s a story Lentz has pulled out of his leather pockets on more than one occasion. In 2016, he recounted it again during an Oprah Winfrey interview, in which he praised Bieber’s faith in spite of his (frequent, well-documented) failings. But while Lentz and his church’s publicity push may seem a touch too secular, Bieber is clearly getting something out of his close relationship with the pastor, and has reportedly broken down at more than one church service. In addition to an emphasis on God and Jesus in his social media, sources reported that, prior to its cancellation, the Purpose tour had become quite spiritual. One source claimed, “Backstage on his Purpose tour, Justin has been sitting down with his opening acts and encouraging them to put Christ before everything. His aim is to convert the people he loves and warn other stars against the evils of the industry.” In other words, anyone expecting to hotbox a dressing room with Biebs would be more likely to stumble on a Bible study class.
It’s one thing to incorporate your spirituality into your tour, and quite another to streamline your traditional Christian values and your star-studded personal life. Bieber, who has said that his ideal match “has to push me spiritually,” has even managed to bring Hillsong into the bedroom, enjoying church services with a number of his exes. Hillsong was allegedly “the special place” Bieber would take Selena Gomez when they were together—so much so that when the famous exes were both spotted at church services in 2015, they immediately sparked reunion rumors. Also in 2015, Bieber and rumored then-girlfriend Hailey Baldwin traveled to Sydney for Hillsong’s annual church conference (the two showed up separately, with Bieber taking a private jet and Baldwin flying commercial). Bieber attended another Hillsong conference this year, just days before his cancellation announcement. In a video from this most recent conference, Bieber commented on his triumphant return to Sydney, explaining, “My faith grows every day, so my faith is stronger than two years ago. I’m better, stronger, wiser... kinda.”
Despite being the church of Kendall Jenner, Kevin Durant, and all of Justin Bieber’s exes, Hillsong boasts a surprisingly old-school set of ideological strictures. Beneath the veneer of young people music and hipster haircuts, Hillsong is like any other traditional Pentecostal church. It opposes embryonic stem-cell research and abortion, support the theories of creationism and “intelligent design,” and hold that homosexuality is at odds with biblical teachings. As The Daily Beast’s Brandy Zadrozny reported last year, Hillsong “has a long history of rejecting and even self-admittedly damaging its gay and lesbian members.” Of course, these sentiments are more or less in keeping with Bieber’s faith, since the pop star has always been a far more “traditional” Christian than his large crucifix chest tattoo would suggest. Biebs famously came under fire early in his career when he told Rolling Stone, “I really don’t believe in abortion.” When pressed on whether his opinion would shift in the case of a sexual assault, the 16-year-old responded, “Well, I think that’s really sad, but everything happens for a reason.”
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Doctrine aside, Hillsong has also been haunted by its fair share of scandals. As The Daily Beast reported, “Hillsong made nearly $100 million in total revenue in 2014, according to their annual report—up 10 percent from the previous year—more than half of which came from donations. And all of this money—from albums and Bible college tuition and books and DVDs for preschoolers and T-shirts and conferences—it’s all tax-free, of course. Exactly where this money goes, including how much is given to pastors’ salaries, as well as how much the Houstons make in ‘love offerings’ for speaking engagements at other venues, is somewhat opaque, which makes it another point of contention for Hillsong critics who argue that Hillsong is essentially a family business that doesn’t have to tithe.”
As Justin Bieber was getting more and more involved in the church, Hillsong was weathering its greatest scandal yet. In October 2015, a royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Australia released a report regarding allegations against Frank Houston, the religious leader whose son Brian is currently Hillsong’s senior pastor. The investigation found that despite allegations that Houston had sexually abused as many as nine children in the 1960s and 1970s, the cases were never referred to the police. Additionally, Brian Houston “had a serious conflict of interest in assuming responsibility for dealing with the allegations; and the Assemblies of God in Australia departed from their policies and procedures set out in the Administration Manual when it came to disciplining Frank Houston.” The report also noted that after the abuse allegations surfaced, Frank Houston was still allowed to resign with a retirement package and “without damage to his reputation or the reputation of Hillsong Church.”
In a statement, Brian Houston admitted that the extent of his father’s abuse was still unknown. “We probably don’t know how many. We may never know how far it went,” he said. | – With a name like George Bieber, you'd think a person would have it made. But no, Justin Bieber's 61-year-old grandfather is, as the Sun puts it, "living in squalor." He has work-related back problems that keep him from working—or even making it upstairs in his cabin, where he beds down on a "dirty mattress." And speaking of the cabin, a tree left a hole in the roof, and George doesn't have enough money to fix it. Yet his super-rich grandson isn't helping him out—though he often sends his other set of grandparents on trips and buys them houses and cars, George says. "He’s got too big for his britches," says George, the father of Justin's dad, Jeremy. According to the New York Daily News, George says Justin hasn't even visited in years, never calls, and has only sent a small amount of Christmas cash and a TV. Right now George and his wife are just barely getting by: "His grandma has a bad back, too, but works like a dog hauling huge bags of paint powder 40 hours a week" at a factory job, George says. In other Bieber news, Justin might be back with Selena Gomez: They were recently spotted kissing in Norway, and then Bieber posted and deleted a picture of them together. |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States Olympic Committee told U.S. sports federations that athletes and staff concerned for their health over the Zika virus should consider not going to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in August.
The logos of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Rio 2016 Paralympic Games are pictured next to a message on a screen that reads "Message about Zika" during a media briefing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
The message was delivered in a conference call involving USOC officials and leaders of U.S. sport federations in late January, according to two people who participated in the call.
Federations were told that no one should go to Brazil “if they don’t feel comfortable going. Bottom line,” said Donald Anthony, president and board chairman of USA Fencing.
The USOC’s briefing to sport federations is the latest sign that Olympics officials are taking the Zika threat to the games in Rio de Janeiro seriously, and acknowledging that at least some athletes and support staff could face a tough decision over whether to attend.
The United States won most medals at the last Olympics in London in 2012, so any disruption to its presence would be important for the Rio games.
Global health authorities suspect the mosquito-borne Zika virus has caused a spike in Brazil of microcephaly, a birth defect marked by an abnormally small head. As a result, the World Health Organization declared an international health emergency Feb. 1, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is advising pregnant women or those considering becoming pregnant to avoid travel to places with Zika outbreaks.
The USOC’s Alan Ashley, its chief of sport performance, and other USOC officials, briefed the leaders of the federations.
Ashley did not respond to email or phone calls requesting comment.
USOC spokesman Mark Jones confirmed by email that Ashley had “briefed federation leaders on the CDC’s recommendations and we will continue to ensure that athletes and officials affiliated with Team USA receive any updates from the CDC.”
The USOC has not issued its own set of recommendations for athletes and staff beyond what the CDC and WHO have issued.
Jones declined to comment further or respond to specific questions from Reuters before publication.
In a statement on Monday, another USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said media reports that the USOC has advised U.S. athletes to reconsider competing in Rio due to the Zika virus were inaccurate. It was unclear what media reports he was referring to and he couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
“Team USA looks forward to the Games and we did not, would not and will not prevent athletes from competing for their country should they qualify,” Sandusky said.
EXPRESSED OPTIMISM
Recalling the conference call, Anthony, a former Olympian, said: “One of the things that they immediately said was, especially for women that may be pregnant or even thinking of getting pregnant, that whether you are scheduled to go to Rio or no, that you shouldn’t go.”
“And no one should go if they feel at all as though that that threat could impact them,” said Anthony, who praised the USOC’s handling of the outbreak so far.
Zika outbreaks have been reported in 33 countries, most of them in the Americas. Symptoms of infection often are mild or imperceptible. But the outbreak in Brazil that began last year has been accompanied by more than 4,000 cases of suspected microcephaly; investigators have confirmed more than 400. The link to Zika is unproven but strongly suspected.
Related Coverage Factbox: Impact of Zika virus on Olympic preparations
In El Salvador, which is experiencing outbreaks of the virus, women are being advised to put off pregnancy until 2018.
Will Connell, Director of Sport at the U.S. Equestrian Federation, said the USOC was leaving the decision up to individual athletes and staff members.
“They said no one who has reasons to be concerned should feel obliged to go,” Connell said. “If an athlete feels that way, of course they may decide not to go.”
During the call, the USOC did not indicate they were concerned that large numbers of athletes would avoid Rio or that Zika could derail the Games, the two federation leaders said.
Instead, officials expressed optimism that risk would be minimized by close cooperation among health agencies, mosquito control efforts and the Games’ timing during Brazil’s winter when mosquito-borne illnesses are less common.
The USOC officials on the call said the organization would adhere to the recommendations of health agencies including the CDC, the sport federation leaders said.
“As we get closer to the Olympics the guidance could get updated,” Connell said.
In a Jan. 29 letter from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to national committees, the IOC’s chief doctors said they were monitoring the situation closely. They passed along mosquito avoidance advice, but remained confident the games would go ahead as planned.
The Australian and New Zealand Olympic Committees said they had already warned their athletes of the potential dangers for pregnant women.
“If any athletes on the team felt they didn’t want to go, we would absolutely support them on that,” an NZOC spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
An Australian Olympic Committee spokeswoman said they would “totally understand” if an athlete chose not to go to Brazil.
“But at this point no athletes have indicated they intend to withdraw from the team,” she added.
Both Connell and U.S. Fencing’s Anthony said the USOC’s message was focused primarily on the potential risks for women who are pregnant or are thinking about trying to become pregnant.
Since the call, the CDC has issued more guidance in light of increasing suspicion that Zika can be transmitted sexually. The CDC said Friday that men who reside in or have traveled to Zika-affected areas may want to abstain from sexual activity or use condoms.
The Olympics have long promised to be a triumphant showcase for Latin America, which is playing host to the global sports spectacle for the first time. Rio has also been expecting more than 380,000 tourists for the Games, which come as Brazil’s economy is mired in recession and its government reels from a corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras.
An ongoing Zika epidemic could prompt some athletes, staff, sponsors and high-spending tourists to steer clear of the Games. Even if the risk of infection to any given visitor is very low – as health experts expect – uncertainties persist. There is no Zika vaccine, and currently available blood tests cannot always detect the virus.
Olympics officials “are taking the right approach from a standpoint of, let’s be cautious, do not do anything that is going to put anybody, our staff or our athletes in danger,” Anthony said.
Anthony said no U.S. fencers had spoken to him about Zika.
“I think our athletes are aware,” he said. “But it has not become a mission critical issue yet. Not yet.” ||||| With the Olympic games scheduled for later this year in Brazil, athletes and national Olympic committees across the globe are expressing concern about the Zika virus, which is spread by mosquitoes.
George Boville, an Olympic bronze medalist swimmer for Trinidad and Tobago in the 200 meter individual medley and two-time world champion, told ABC News that he was worried about going to Brazil, where the outbreak of the Zika virus in the Americas started.
"It is definitely a concern," he told ABC News via Twitter. By the time of the Olympic games, "it should be rampant."
The New Zealand Olympic Committee and the Australian Olympic Team Committee have already told their athletes to take protective measures.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee said they are abiding by government recommendations, which at this point advise "expectant mothers or those planning pregnancy do not travel to areas with the Zika virus present."
"We would support any athlete or support staff member in their decision to not attend the games if this were the case," the committee said in a statement last week.
The Australian Olympic Committee said they are advising all athletes to wear long sleeves and that any team member who is "pregnant at the time of the Games need to consider the risks very carefully before deciding whether to proceed with travel to Brazil."
American wrestler Adeline Grey told reporters at a test event on Sunday at Rio's Olympic Park that she didn't plan to skip the games, but that if she were pregnant she would reconsider participating.
"If I was planning to have a child next month, I would be extremely uneasy about this," Gray said, according to the Associated Press. "Maybe that would have changed my decision" to come to Rio for the test event.
The International Olympic Committee released a note on Friday to all Olympic committees outlining medical advice.
"We remain confident that there will be a safe environment for successful and enjoyable Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro," the IOC said in the statement.
The United States Olympic Committee officials said they are most concerned about the well-being of athletes and staff going to the games.
"We continue to closely monitor the situation through the CDC and have ongoing contact with the International Olympic Committee, the organizing officials in Rio, the World Health Organization and infectious disease specialists with expertise in tropical diseases, including the Zika virus," the USOC said in a statement.
The Zika virus is characterized by mostly mild symptoms, including fever, rash and fatigue. However, it has been associated with a worrying rise in a dangerous birth defect called microcephaly, where an infant is born with an abnormally small head. It has been known to be associated with developmental delays and seizures.
Rio 2016's communications director, Mario Andrada, said there currently was no measurable reaction in ticket-holders, according to Reuters.
"Tickets have not been returned nor trips canceled," he said, according to Reuters.
Pregnant Olympic athletes are a rare occurrence, but multiple women have reportedly competed while they were unknowingly pregnant. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Kerri Walsh Jennings was five weeks pregnant when she won the gold medal, according to ESPN.com.
And many of those who travel to the Olympics are the family members of the athletes. | – If the US medal count is lower than normal at the Summer Olympics this year, blame mosquitoes. The United States Olympic Committee has spread the word to American athletes: If the Zika virus worries them, they should skip the Games in Brazil, reports Reuters. The message came in a conference call to the leaders of US sports federations, and the head of USA Fencing says that the "bottom line" was clear enough: Nobody should head to Rio "if they don't feel comfortable going." ABC News previously rounded up concerns of US athletes, including wrestler Adeline Grey saying she might have opted out of a recent competition in Rio had she been pregnant. |
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/ Updated By Erik Ortiz
Days after white doves and shofar horns christened the opening of a new Noah's Ark attraction in northern Kentucky, the land-anchored ship welcomed a conspicuous and curious visitor: Bill Nye “the Science Guy.”
The bow-tied man of science — openly skeptical about the exhibit from the time it was announced — was an invited guest at the Ark Encounter, which opened July 7 and is billed as the largest timber-frame structure in the world, at 51 feet tall and 1-1/2 football fields in length.
Visitors pass outside the front of a replica Noah's Ark at the Ark Encounter theme park during a media preview day on July 5, 2016, in Williamstown, Ky. John Minchillo / AP
Nye had to see the voluminous vessel for himself, and set off for the rolling green vistas of Williamstown, a rural community south of Cincinnati.
What he found, he told NBC News, was an eye-catching attraction that was "much more troubling or disturbing than I thought it would be."
"On the third deck (of the ark), every single science exhibit is absolutely wrong," he said. "Not just misleading, but wrong."
Related: Bible-Based All-Wood Ark Takes Shape in Kentucky Field
State and local officials are banking on the Bible-based theme park to lure tourists and boost the local economy. The project's creator, Ken Ham, hopes it will attract fundamentalist Christians, some of whom are already visiting its nearby sister site, the Creation Museum, built in 2007.
Ham and Nye have been jousting partners since 2014, when they sparred in a debate over creationism versus evolution that was broadcast online from the Creation Museum and racked up millions of views on YouTube.
In exploring the Ark, the famed children's television host was given a personal tour of the 120,000-square-foot structure by Ham, who has emerged as a prominent voice in the "young Earth" creationist movement.
Ham, who was born in Australia and founded the Answers in Genesis ministry, believes the Bible and its Book of Genesis is literal historical fact — which means the Earth would be only about 6,000 years as opposed to the roughly 4.5 billion years estimated by scientists.
As represented in the Ark exhibit, dinosaurs co-existed with humans. That's also a big departure from the science of evolution, which says they became extinct some 65 million years ago — long before mankind emerged.
Noah's story, as told in Genesis, says he built an ark at God’s request in anticipation of a Great Flood. The patriarch packed up his family and corralled two of every kind of animal in the world to live on the ship — and for that, God spared him and those creatures.
To Nye, that's hogwash, although some scholars are open to the idea that a historic flood of Biblical proportions could have happened and inspired the Noah tale. Scientists, however, say there's no evidence to suggest an epic, worldwide flood occurred within the past 6,000 years.
Nye takes particular exception to the dinosaurs on the ark — re-created in cages among rows of other odd-looking animal replicas. (Plans to house live animals on board had to be scrapped, and there are also fewer animal replicas than planned to make way for restrooms for the visitors.)
A visitor looks into a cage containing a model dinosaur inside a replica Noah's Ark at the Ark Encounter theme park during a media preview day on July 5, 2016, in Williamstown, Ky. John Minchillo / AP
Nye said the exhibit encourages visitors to trust faith over science and thereby undercuts their ability to engage in critical thinking.
"It’s all very troubling. You have hundreds of school kids there who have already been indoctrinated and who have been brainwashed," he said, recalling how one young girl on the Ark told him to change his way of thinking.
"The parents were feeding her word for word," Nye added.
In a Facebook post, Ham said Nye's visit turned into an impromptu "debate" as other visitors huddled around the pair. The experience gave Ham a chance to "share the gospel" with Nye, he said.
"As we ended our walk through the 1st deck in front of life-size models of Noah and his family who were depicted praying, I asked Bill if he would mind if I prayed, and if I could I pray for him. He said I could do whatever I want as he couldn't stop me," Ham wrote. "So while a large group of people were gathered around, I publicly prayed for Bill. I did ask him if we could be friends, but he said we could be acquaintances with mutual respect, but not friends."
Ken Ham, creator of the Ark Encounter, and Bill Nye on July 8, 2016, during a tour of the replica. The Bill Nye Film
Nye said that while he appreciated some of the craftsmanship details that went into building the boat, which was the handiwork of Amish laborers, something else behind the scenes has troubled him.
He takes issue with a tax break that the commonwealth of Kentucky provided to the Ark Encounter — built at a cost of $102 million. Despite opposition in 2014 by former state officials, a federal judge earlier this year ruled that the Ark could take advantage of a state sales tax rebate worth as much as 25 percent of the investment.
While the Ark was paid for by a mix of private donations and municipal bonds backed by the project’s future revenues — adult tickets cost $40, while admission is $28 for children from 5 to 12 — Ham insists that taxpayers aren't on the hook for any costs.
"Only visitors to the Ark Encounter pay the sales tax that generates the possible rebate," he wrote in an editorial last month in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Photos: Life-Sized Noah's Ark Revealed to Public in Kentucky
But critics say there's another questionable perk: a 2 percent tax on employees' gross wages intended to help pay off the attraction over the next 30 years. The park is looking to hire 300 to 400 seasonal jobs.
A requirement that potential employees sign a statement that they are Christian has also raised eyebrows. The hiring practice was upheld in the federal judge’s ruling, which said an exemption to the 1964 Civil Rights Act actually permits the Ark to have a religious requirement for employment.
Nye said the religious element of the theme park itself doesn't worry him — rather, he's concerned about what it's passing off as fact.
"I’m not busting anyone's chops about a religion," he said. "This is about the absolutely wrong idea that the Earth is 6,000 years old that’s alarming to me."
Ham, on the other hand, has accused atheists of being "intolerant bullies" toward people of faith. He is confident both the Ark Encounter and his Creation Museum will see a shared surge in interest.
It's unclear how much money the Ark has earned since opening. But in its first six days, a spokeswoman told NBC News there have been about 30,000 visitors.
Members of a documentary crew that joined Nye told NBC News the crowd appeared thin on the day he visited and the parking lot was mostly empty.
Cars sit in the parking lot adjacent to the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Ky., on its opening day on July 7. Brendan Hall / The Bill Nye Film
Ham hopes to attract close to 2 million guests in the attraction's first year.
While he and Nye parted ways without finding common ground, he said having Nye visit during the Ark’s premiere week was beneficial.
"To me, it was so fitting that with the opening of the Ark Encounter, this massive ship is being used to witness to such a well-known personality," Ham wrote on Facebook. "We ended with a friendly handshake."
As for the ark property itself, it's not done expanding. Ham said plans for a walled city and Tower of Babel — intended to warn against the dangers of "prejudice and racism" — will be part of a future phase. ||||| The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy A rendering of the Ark Encounter, a Noah?s Ark-themed park planned for a site in Grant County in Northern Kentucky. Artist's rendering of the Ark Encounter, a theme park planned in Grant County that will feature a 510-foot-long replica of Noah's Ark. KYXXARKENCOUNTER KY FEBRUARY 21, 2013 Artist's rendering of the Ark Encounter, a Noah's Ark-themed park planned for a site in Grant County. The project, which will feature a 510-foot-long replica of Noah's Ark is being planned by Answers in Genesis, the organization that built the Creation Museum in Boone County. The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy
The state Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet said in a letter Wednesday that the Ark Encounter theme park has changed its position on hiring policies since it originally filed for incentives in 2010 and now intends to discriminate in hiring based on religion.
EDITORIAL: No Ark Encounter park tax breaks
It also said the park has evolved from a tourist attraction into an extension of the ministry activities undertaken by Answers in Genesis, which promotes a literal interpretation of the Bible's old testament and argues that the Earth is only 6,000 years old.
"State tourism tax incentives cannot be used to fund religious indoctrination or otherwise be used to advance religion," Tourism Secretary Bob Stewart wrote in the letter. "The use of state incentives in this way violates the separation of church and state provisions of the Constitution and is therefore impermissible."
Officials will "take no further action" on the application, he said.
Answers in Genesis was seeking approval to participate in a state tax-incentive program that would have let the park keep 25 percent of the sales tax it collects for 10 years, amounting to more than $18 million.
The $73 million first phase of the Ark Encounter involves building a full-scale, 510-foot wooden replica of the ark in Grant County to present the biblical account of Noah surviving a worldwide flood.
The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority gave preliminary approval in July but thereafter sought written assurances that project leaders would not discriminate on the basis of religion.
Without Stewart's recommendation, the application will not go back to the authority for final approval.
Answers in Genesis, which launched a billboard campaign in Kentucky and New York City this week to counter criticism from "anti-Christian activists," said in a statement that its attorneys are exploring legal options.
And one of the group's attorneys, James Parsons, sent a letter to the cabinet on Monday arguing that the state's demands on hiring policies violate state and federal law.
"If you insist on the newly imposed condition... it will amount to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and my client will have no choice but to seek redress in federal court," Parsons wrote.
The letter describes Ark Encounter as an "overtly religious entity" that is "clearly allowed" under state and federal law to use religious criteria in hiring. It also argues that the state's conditions will impose a burden on the freedom of religion without a compelling government interest.
Parsons argued that simply allowing Ark Encounter to participate in the incentive program does not amount to endorsing a religious viewpoint or spending state money to further a religious cause.
But, Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said it's unlikely a lawsuit could succeed in federal court.
He said the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that states can deny taxpayer subsidies to religious groups if officials are concerned that funds will support religious activities.
"Kentucky is doing the right thing and is respecting the rights of taxpayers to not be forced to subsidize religious indoctrination and discrimination," Luchenitser said. "The state is also respecting the fact that jobs that are going to be supported by state subsidies must be open to all."
Story continues below
READER LETTER: Aussie against Ark Park
READER LETTER: Ark park tax breaks
CLOSE An amusement park centered around a life-sized replica of Noah's Ark, is at risk of never being built if its makers cannot raise $29 million. Andrew Dymburt (@CantPinTheDym) has the story.
Meanwhile, Gov. Steve Beshear issued a statement Wednesday reiterating concerns that project leaders plan to use religious beliefs as a "litmus test" for hiring. But he said Wednesday's decision does not prevent the park from being built.
"On the contrary, Ark Encounter has said publicly that the project will be built regardless of availability of state incentives," he said. "I have no doubt that the Ark Encounter will be a successful attraction, drawing visitors and creating jobs, much like the Creation Museum."
Answers in Genesis had received a green light from the finance authority in 2011 for its entire $172.5 million project. But, it withdrew the application amid financing troubles and returned this year seeking approval for only the first phase.
Excavation on the construction site has already begun.
Answers in Genesis also runs the Creation Museum in Boone County, a 70,000-square-foot operation that asserts that Earth was created in six days and that ancient humans lived alongside dinosaurs.
Reporter Mike Wynn can be reached at (502) 875-5136. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeWynn_CJ.
Read or Share this story: http://cjky.it/1AgF6wL | – A massive, $100 million replica of Noah's Ark will open Thursday in Kentucky to—its builders hope—"undo the brainwashing" done to children by science, the Courier-Journal reports. According to the Guardian, the Ark Encounter, which was built by Answers in Genesis, is 510 feet long and seven stories tall. Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, tells the AP he hopes it will prove that the Bible is true. The ark is filled with testaments to Answers in Genesis' beliefs: the Earth was created in six days and is only 6,000 years old, dinosaurs coexisted with humans, and Noah fit the ancestors of modern animals onboard. That last item has led to the replica's animal pens being filled with bizarre creatures, such as a house cat with a lion's head and some sort of hornless rhino. “In a world that we see becoming very secularized before our eyes, it’s really time for Christians to do something of this size,” Ham tells the Courier-Journal. Meanwhile, the paper states many people see the ark as an "embarrassing, entertainment-cloaked attack on science that uses tax incentives in violation of the separation of church and state.” A judge ruled Ark Encounter could get $18 million in tax incentives despite having a "strict religious test" for employees, who must be Christians and pledge to oppose same-sex marriage and pre-marital sex. The project was announced in 2010 but had trouble raising funds. Strangely, Bill Nye may have saved the ark by inadvertently drawing attention to it when he agreed to debate Ham about evolution. The noted Science Guy says he's "heartbroken and sickened" by Ark Encounter. |
The man who carried out bomb and gun attacks in Norway last year which left 77 people dead has pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial in Oslo.
Anders Behring Breivik attacked a youth camp organised by the governing Labour party on the island of Utoeya, after setting off a car bomb in the capital.
He told the court he "acknowledged" the acts committed, but said he did not accept criminal responsibility.
The prosecution earlier gave a detailed account of how each person was killed.
If the court decides he is criminally insane, he will be committed to psychiatric care; if he is judged to be mentally stable, he will be jailed.
In the latter case, he faces a sentence of 21 years, which could be extended to keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
The 33-year-old Norwegian was found insane in one examination, while a second assessment made public last week found him mentally competent.
At the scene The prosecution presented details of the attacks on Utoeya island, which included a harrowing emergency telephone call from one of the youths there. More than 50 gunshots and screaming could be heard in the background. Breivik remained seemingly unmoved throughout. Yet earlier he broke down in tears as the prosecution screened his own propaganda video, which he posted online shortly before his attacks. A report from Norwegian TV2 said that by reading his lips he appeared to tell one of his defence team that "it was an emotional video". Breivik also showed emotion as the prosecution showed illustrations and video from the car bomb attack in Oslo city centre. While victims and their families cried as the blast could be seen, Breivik smiled on several occasions.
'Self-defence'
Dressed in a dark suit, Breivik smiled as he entered the courtroom and a guard removed his handcuffs. He then gave a closed-fist salute.
He later told the lead judge, Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen: "I do not recognise the Norwegian courts. You have received your mandate from political parties which support multiculturalism."
He also said he did not recognise the authority of Judge Arntzen, claiming she was friends with the sister of former Prime Minister and Labour party leader Gro Harlem Brundtland.
The judge noted the objections, which Breivik's lawyer said were not official, and said the defence could follow up on them in their opening arguments.
Breivik described his occupation as a "writer", currently working from prison.
Prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh read out the charges against him and gave an extensively detailed account of how each person was killed or injured in last year's attacks.
She said the attacks "created fear in the Norwegian population", adding: "The defendant has committed very serious crimes, on a scale which hasn't been experienced in our country in modern times."
Breivik showed no emotion, looking down at the table in front of him.
At the end of the indictment, he told the court: "I acknowledge the acts, but not criminal guilt - I claim I was doing it in self-defence."
Breivik has already confessed to the attacks on 22 July. In the car bombing outside government buildings in Oslo, eight people were killed and 209 wounded.
He killed 67 people and wounded 33 - most of them teenagers - in his shooting spree at the youth camp on Utoeya. A further two people died by falling or drowning.
At a court hearing in February, Breivik said his killing spree was "a preventative attack against state traitors", who were guilty of "ethnic cleansing" because they supported a multicultural society.
His lawyer has said his only regret is that "he did not go further".
"It is difficult to understand, but I am telling you this to prepare people for his testimony," Geir Lippestad told reporters before the trial.
Breivik's Norway attacks 8 people killed and 209 injured by bomb in Oslo
69 people killed on Utoeya island, of them 34 aged between 14 and 17
33 injured on Utoeya
Nearly 900 people affected by attacks In pictures: Breivik trial
Investigators have found no evidence to support Breivik's claims that he belonged to a secret "resistance" movement, the "Knights Templar", named after a military and religious order founded during the Crusades to fight the enemies of Christendom.
"In our opinion such a network does not exist," prosecutor Svein Holden told the court on Monday.
A 12-minute-long film about the evils of "multiculturalism" and "Islamic demographic warfare", which Breivik posted online on the day of the attacks, was shown in court before the trial was adjourned for lunch. As it concluded, he could be seen wiping tears from his eyes.
Later, previously unreleased surveillance footage of the Oslo bombing was shown.
Some of the survivors and relatives of those killed reportedly gasped after footage was played of Breivik's explosives-packed vehicle exploding, followed by scenes of panic as people fled and pieces of metal fell to the ground. But the defendant was impassive, and at times even smirked.
The court later adjourned for the day.
At a news conference following the adjournment, Mr Lippestad said Breivik considered he was at war and therefore felt he should be tried by a military tribunal.
Asked about Breivik's tears during the first day, he said "part of the explanation" might be that his client considered his actions "necessary to prevent a war in Europe".
Parts of the trial will be shown on television, but the court will not allow Breivik's testimony or that of his witnesses to be broadcast. Breivik is scheduled to take the stand for about a week, starting on Tuesday.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Oslo says that with Breivik not expected to express any remorse for his actions, his trial promises to be an ordeal for the families of those killed and for those who survived.
Jorid Nordmelan, a survivor of the Utoeya massacre, told the BBC she would be in court to hear Breivik testify.
"It's a historical date for Norwegians," she said. "We never had a trial like this, so we don't know what's going to happen.
"Prosecutors told me they were going to make the opening statements awful, so that people can just feel what he did right there."
Police have sealed off streets around the courtroom, which was specially built for the trial to accommodate more than 200 people. Glass partitions have been put up to separate the victims and their families from Breivik. ||||| OSLO — Anders Behring Breivik , the self-described anti-Islamic militant who admitted killing 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage last summer, sought Monday to include himself among the victims, telling a court that he was able to undertake the “gruesome” murders of scores of youths because they were “necessary” and telling bereaved families that he too had paid a high price.
Describing how he stalked and executed teenagers attending a political youth camp on the wooded island of Utoya, Mr. Breivik, 33, said: “I have never experienced anything so gruesome. It was probably even more horrendous for those I was hunting. But it was necessary. Yes, it was necessary. The July 22 operation was necessary.”
“When people say they have lost their most beloved, I also lost my entire family, I lost my friends,” he also said. “It was my choice. I sacrificed them, but I lost my entire family and friends on 22 July. I lost everything. So to a certain extent, I understand.”
Monday was the last scheduled day of testimony from Mr. Breivik, who maintains that he acted out of a dedication to fight political acceptance of the “Islamic colonization of Norway.” The court will now begin to hear from witnesses of the shootings on Utoya, which left a total of 69 people dead, and a bomb blast in central Oslo that killed eight more people.
With his guilt already established, the trial centers on the question of whether Mr. Breivik was insane at the time of the killings. Two psychiatric reviews have come down on opposite sides of the question. He insists that he was sane, and that efforts to portray him otherwise are part of a campaign to discredit his fight against Muslim immigration.
If he is found to have been sane, the presiding judges can sentence him to up to 21 years in prison, with a provision to keep him behind bars longer if he is still considered dangerous. If he is found to have been insane, Mr. Breivik can be kept in forced psychiatric care.
Two contradictory psychiatric reports have already been handed to the court, but the final decision will be in the hands of the two professional and three lay judges at the trial.
“This case is very simply that I am not a psychotic case and I am sane,” Mr. Breivik told the court on Friday. “I understand that when you see something too extreme, you might think it is irrational and insane. But you must separate political extremism from insanity.” | – As his trial began in Oslo today, Anders Behring Breivik told the court that the slaughter of 77 people in Norway was a matter of ... self-defense. "I acknowledge the acts but do not plead guilty, and I claim I was doing it in self-defense," he said. Upon entering the courtroom, he smiled then held up his fist in a salute; he told the judge he doesn't "recognize the Norwegian courts. You have received your mandate from political parties which support multiculturalism." While the court detailed the killings of dozens, he appeared emotionless, CNN reports. He did, however, shed tears after the court showed an anti-immigration video he posted on the Internet on the day of the tragedy, the BBC reports. The question of Breivik's sanity remains open following conflicting exams; his punishment hinges on the decision. Meanwhile, "it's going to be 10 weeks of hell," says the parent of a victim, "to hear this man, to hear his explanation of why he did it, and how he did it." |
Story highlights In remarks to CNN, Duncan apologizes for his choice of words
The "white suburban moms" comment came in a meeting with state education chiefs
He was talking about the Common Core State Standards, a controversial effort
Writes one commentator: "This Obama educrat has stepped in it. Big time"
Proving once again that any controversy will be intensified -- if not illuminated -- by random references to race, class, and gender, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has ignited a storm of protest by noting opposition from "white suburban moms" to one of his prized educational initiatives.
In a meeting with state education chiefs Friday, Duncan said some opposition to the Common Core State Standards -- a controversial effort to standardize education -- has come from parents displeased that test results have exposed local weaknesses. Duncan said he found it "fascinating" that opponents include "white suburban moms who -- all of a sudden -- (discovered that) their child isn't as bright as they thought they were, and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were."
Duncan apologized for the remark Monday afternoon.
Speaking to CNN, he said: "My wording, my phrasing, was a little clumsy and I apologize for that."
Duncan said his point was that the goal is to prepare U.S. students for a "globally competitive work force" and to challenge education leaders to better explain to parents why higher standards are needed and what it takes to achieve them.
"I didn't say them perfectly, and I apologize for that," he added. "My point is that children from every demographic across this country need a well-rounded, world-class education and frankly we have challenges not just in our inner cities but in our suburban areas, too, and we need to have honest conversations about that."
The "white suburban moms" remark was first reported Friday by Politico, which later reported that Duncan backpedaled, saying that he "didn't say it perfectly."
The incident, if nothing else, is thrusting Common Core State Standards into red-hot glare of politically oriented social media.
Duncan has pushed the initiative, which seeks to establish a single set of educational standards for kindergarten through high school for math and English.
Advocates say the standards are essential to improve student skills, prepare them for college, and make the United States competitive with other nations.
But opponents say the standards instill students with elitist values and rob communities of local control of schools.
The remarks triggered a barrage of online comments, and a WhiteHouse.gov petition. As of noon Monday, 1,800 people had signed the petition to remove Duncan as secretary of education. A separate '"National Don't Send Your Child to School Day," protest over the standards has gained thousands of supporters on its Facebook page, though the number of children who were kept from school is unclear.
Conservative commentator and Common Core foe Michelle Malkin scolded Duncan.
"Ohhhh yes, the red blood underneath my brown skin is boiling. This Obama educrat has stepped in it. Big time. Race card-wielding Education Secretary Arne Duncan is nothing but a corrupt and bankrupt bigot," Malkin wrote.
Tweeted Randi Winegarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers: "Arne-if u are reading- you shld walk this back..very insensitive-and not right-moms care abt their kids!!
One Virginia-area mother posted a personal response on the left-leaning DailyKos arguing that Duncan missed the point. She said her own son was late to focus and achieve, and standardized testing would have marginalized him.
"I don't fight the Common Core because I think my child is brilliant, but because I'm tired of these one size fits all educational solutions," wrote Gretchen Moran Laskas. "So yes, I'm opposed. Not because I don't understand it. Not because I think it will make my children look bad. But because I know that children already look bad -- and by the time they might get it together and look good the way (my son) could, it might be too late."
A Department of Education official said in an e-mail that, in making his remarks, Duncan was encouraging state education chiefs to better communicate why higher standards are so important.
"The far right and far left have made up their minds," spokesman Massie Ritsch wrote. "But there's angst in the middle -- which includes many open-minded suburban parents -- that needs to be addressed."
"Arne -- a white suburban dad married to a white suburban mom, with two kids in public schools -- has always been clear that test scores are an imperfect measure of student achievement and school quality, but tests are an indicator nonetheless," Ritsch wrote. "And when that indicator conflicts with parents' notions of their child's abilities or their school's quality, it's understandable that some parents would be concerned."
The White House spokesman also defended Duncan, though Jay Carney said he had not seen all the comments.
"His point was that we need to be honest with kids and parents -- all can agree on that," Carney said on Monday. ||||| Social media and even mainstream media appear poised to leap on Secretary Arne Duncan with both feet due to his swipe at white suburban moms.
The nearly universal sweeping outrage—some with a level of glee that must not be ignored—calls for close consideration itself.
First, rejecting Duncan’s comments about white suburban moms and Common Core critics is completely valid. I join hands with the education community in rejecting Duncan’s claims, his discourse, and his efforts to discredit a significant, credible, and growing resistance to CC that should not be trivialized and marginalized as Duncan does.
However, I find the magnitude and swiftness of the responses to this “white suburban moms” incident disappointing in the larger context of Duncan’s entire tenure as Secretary of Education.
In the first moments of Obama’s administration, Duncan has personified and voiced an education agenda that disproportionately impacts black, brown, and poor children in powerfully negative ways. And the entire agenda has been consistently cloaked in discourse characterizing these policies as the Civil Rights issue of the day.
As well, Duncan has perpetuated and embraced “no excuses” narratives while directly and indirectly endorsing education reform and policies that target and mis-serve high-poverty students, African American and Latina/o students, and English Language learners—charter schools, Teach for America, accountability based on standards and high-stakes testing.
Public commentary that highlights that education reform under Obama and Duncan fails the pursuit of equity in the context of race and class in the U.S. tends to fall on deaf ears. The same urgency witnessed in the responses to Duncan’s “white suburban moms” contrasts significantly from the silence surrounding challenges to Duncan’s discourse and policies that are classist and racist, policy designed for “other people’s children.”
The problem is not that educators and scholars have failed to identify that education reform under Obama and Duncan have continued and increased federal and state education policy creating two inequitable education systems—one for the white and affluent, another for minorities and the impoverished—because these important messages have been raised.
The problem is that rejecting education reform discourse and policy based on race and class concerns doesn’t resonate in the U.S.
As I have asked numerous times, what would the political and public support for TFA be if the organization was providing recent college graduates with no degrees in education and only five weeks of training to teach Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes filled with affluent white students? (A similar question about KIPP raises the same issue.)
Indirectly, from the response to Duncan’s “white suburban moms” comments, now we know.
The measure of a people must not come from how we flinch when the privileged suffer; the measure of a people must come from how we tolerate (or ignore) the conditions that impact the impoverished and the powerless.
If white outrage is the only outrage that counts in the U.S., any victory won from that outrage is no victory at all.
For Further Reading
First They Came For Urban Black and Latino Moms (For Arne Duncan), Jose Vilson
“the archeology of white people”
Advertisements ||||| U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan plans to step down from his Cabinet position by the end of the year, leaving the Obama administration more than a year before the president’s term will end.
[Read Duncan’s e-mail to his staff, announcing his decision]
“He’s done more to bring our educational system, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the 21st century than anyone else,” President Obama said as he announced Duncan’s resignation at the White House on Friday afternoon. “America will be better off for what he has done.”
Obama has chosen John B. King Jr., who currently acts as deputy secretary of education, to replace Duncan.
King is a Brooklyn native who often credits teachers with guiding him toward a successful path after he was orphaned at age 12. A former charter school leader in Boston and New York, he joined the Education Department in January after a turbulent tenure as commissioner of education for the state of New York. In that role, he was a key architect of new teacher evaluations tied to test scores and played a key role in pushing New York to adopt new tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards years before other states did the same.
King defended those moves, favored by Duncan and the Obama administration, even as they made him the target of public outrage. Parents saw their children’s test scores fall and teachers unions called for his ouster.
Duncan, 50, has been one of the longest-serving education secretaries and, by most accounts, the most influential.
He took an agency long considered a quiet outpost in the power landscape of Washington, D.C., and – through luck and strategy – oversaw a vigorous expansion of the federal role in the nation’s 100,000 public schools. He largely bypassed Congress to induce states to adopt landmark changes that none of his predecessors attempted – policies such as teacher evaluations and higher academic standards.
Duncan tried to straddle the deep national divide about the best way to improve public education, working between those who believe that competition, accountability and market forces are the best route and others who argue for heavier investment to address the many needs of poor children who increasingly fill public schools.
To Duncan, that has meant a rapid expansion of public charter schools, promoting a national set of K-12 academic benchmarks known as the Common Core State Standards in math and reading, holding teachers accountable for student progress as measured in part by test scores; enrolling more low-income children in preschool; and advocating investment in “wraparound services” such as medical care, mentoring and family services.
Duncan was able to cajole and convince states to adopt his favored policies by taking advantage of two powerful tools: competitive federal grants known as Race to the Top and waivers that excused states from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, a federal law widely disliked by states. In order to compete for a grant under Race to the Top, or to receive a waiver under No Child Left Behind, states had to adopt Duncan’s favored policies. Today, more than 40 states hold such waivers, leading some critics to accuse Duncan of acting as “the national school superintendent.”
[How Duncan and Obama have changed America’s schools]
One of those critics, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), couched his disagreements in gentle terms when reacting to Duncan’s news on Friday. “Arne Duncan was one of the president’s best appointments,” he said in a statement. “When we disagree, it is usually because he believes the path to effective teaching, higher standards and real accountability is through Washington, D.C., and I believe it should be in the hands of states, communities, parents and classroom teachers.”
Duncan, who has been the longest-serving member of Obama’s Cabinet, has come under increasing criticism from both the right and the left. Congress, in pending legislation, has moved to strip his power, and in July 2014, delegates of the National Education Association called on Duncan to resign, citing policies they believed hurt teachers and unions.
In a move that made a profound difference to schools across the country but has been little noticed in the larger debates about Duncan’s legacy, his agency directed $100 billion in stimulus funds to districts small and large that were otherwise facing severe job cuts in the wake of the 2008 recession. The move preserved an estimated 350,000 teaching jobs. He also oversaw a major expansion of the department’s Office of Civil Rights as the department investigated sexual assault on college campuses, and he pushed the nation’s schools to change discipline policies that resulted in the disproportionate suspension and expulsion of minority children.
[Even as Congress moves to strip his power, Arne Duncan holds his ground]
Duncan spoke often about the importance of early childhood education and pushed unsuccessfully for a major expansion of federally funded preschool programs. On Wednesday, early childhood education advocates expressed appreciation for the attention he helped bring to their work.
“Secretary Duncan’s leadership and unwavering dedication to early childhood education has made an immeasurable difference in the lives of countless young learners,” said Kris Perry, executive director of the First Five Years Fund. “He has harnessed what all of the research shows about the benefits of investing in early learning, and successfully incorporated it into the everyday mission and policy goals of the Department of Education. We are incredibly grateful.”
Progress for the nation’s K-12 students has been uneven during Duncan’s tenure. High school graduation rates are at an all-time high while dropout rates are down. But average math and reading scores for high school students have flat-lined since 2008 and only marginally improved among 9- and 13- year-old students during the same time period, according to tests administered by the federal government every two years.
In higher education, Duncan has been the point man in chasing a goal Obama set early in his presidency: for the United States to become by 2020 the world leader in the share of young adults who have a college degree. The nation has made some progress but still trails several others on that measure.
Duncan has championed several measures to widen access to college for disadvantaged students, including simpler financial aid forms and more funding for Pell grants. This year he even visited a prison in Maryland to announce an experiment that will enable some prisoners to receive Pell grants.
The Education Department under Duncan has also taken steps to tighten oversight of colleges. Some of those steps have irritated college and university leaders. There has been more regulation of for-profit colleges, as well as a heightened level of financial scrutiny that led to the collapse of the Corinthian College for-profit chain. A lengthy effort to come up with a federal plan to rate colleges on measures of value and access was derailed, but Duncan last month unveiled an alternative: a Web site called College Scorecard that publishes information about graduation rates and average salaries of alumni at thousands of schools.
Duncan’s move from Washington to Chicago — where he grew up and later was the head of the Chicago Public Schools — appears to have been in the making for some time. Duncan’s wife, Karen, and his two children, Claire and Ryan, moved back to Chicago earlier this year to restart life in the city where they lived before Obama, then president-elect, asked his old friend in 2008 to run the U.S. Education Department.
Duncan did not hide his dislike for the nation’s capital, often criticizing Washington as a den of dysfunction filled with powerful people who lacked political courage to do what he believed was right.
In an interview with The Washington Post in June, he recounted how one senator confided that he supported universal preschool — an idea Duncan had been promoting for two years — but would not publicly back any plan for the federal government to fund it.
“That’s, like, my political lesson in Washington,” Duncan said. “Are you here to make a difference? . . . Or are you here to say you’re a fancy senator?”
But Duncan said at the time that he planned to remain in Washington, serving out the Obama administration’s second term before rejoining his family in Chicago. Karen Duncan was seen at the private Lab Schools in Chicago in late January with her two children (who “shadowed” other students through a school day, which is commonly done by students preparing to attend a particular school).
When the family’s move was announced in July, Dorie Nolt, Duncan’s spokeswoman, released this statement:
After more than six years living just outside Washington, D.C., Secretary Duncan’s family moved back to Chicago recently. His wife, Karen, is ready to resume her full-time career in education and will work at her former employer, the University of Chicago Laboratory School, where their children will attend school. Secretary Duncan will continue to work and maintain a residence in D.C. but commute to spend weekends with his family, as many cabinet Secretaries have done. Secretary Duncan remains committed to his work in the Cabinet and will continue to serve at the pleasure of the President.
In the June interview with The Post, Duncan said he planned to stay put in Washington because he felt he had a long list of unfinished business and felt an urgency to keep pushing toward unmet goals. He called his job the dream of a lifetime. “I still pinch myself some days,” he said.
Duncan’s departure means President Obama is losing his closest friend in the Cabinet. The two men first met decades ago in Chicago and forged a friendship on the basketball courts through love of the game and an interest in education.
Throughout much of his presidency, Obama regularly played basketball with Duncan at various federal facilities around Washington. Duncan, who had a brief stint in Australia as a professional player after college, still plays, while Obama has switched to golf.
Duncan’s announcement came as a surprise even to some people who are close to him. Just two days ago, after a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, Duncan artfully declined to answer when he was asked whether he planned to stay until the end of the administration’s second term.
“We’re working hard every day, and we have an amazing team,” Duncan said. “There is so much work we need to do.”
Duncan at the time gave the impression that he would stay until the Obama administration ends in 14 months, talking about the importance of the work ahead “in the fourth quarter.”
Asked what he planned to do after leaving office, he demurred.
“I have no idea,” Duncan said, adding that he felt he had a great deal more work to do in his current job and felt great pressure to get as much done as he could in the remaining months. “I’ve always been very tunnel-visioned. … It’s absolutely the wrong thing to do to start thinking about other things right now.”
Then he waited a beat.
“But if anybody has any ideas, let me know,” he said to laughter.
The following is a text of an internal e-mail Duncan sent to his staff today, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post:
Subject line: An inspiring new leader for our extraordinary team
Dear colleagues,
I’m writing to tell you two things. First, what is for me some bittersweet news: after several months of commuting between my family in Chicago and my job here in DC, I have made the decision to step down in December. Second, and very happily, President Obama has asked our delegated Deputy Secretary John King Jr. to step into my role when I leave. An announcement to that effect went out from the White House a few minutes ago. Serving the President in the work of expanding opportunity for students throughout this country has been the greatest honor of my life. Doing so alongside people of the brilliance, ability and moral conviction of the team here at ED has been nothing short of thrilling. We have been lucky to have an a amazing team here from Day One, but I honestly believe our team today is the strongest it’s ever been. So it’s with real sadness that have come to recognize that being apart from my family has become too much of a strain, and it is time for me to step aside and give a new leader a chance. I haven’t talked with anyone about what I’ll do next, and probably won’t for a little while – I’m simply returning to Chicago to live with my family. I imagine my next steps will continue to involve the work of expanding opportunity for children, but I have no idea what that will look like yet. What gives me peace with this decision, and I hope comes as a reassurance to everyone here, is the extraordinary talent of John and our leadership team. John comes to this role with a record of exceptional accomplishment as a lifelong educator – a teacher, a school leader, and a leader of school systems, most recently as Commissioner of Education in New York State before he joined our team. Over the years that I have known him, and especially in the months we have worked together here, I’ve come to recognize John as one of the most passionate, courageous, clear-headed leaders in our field. His talent is such that he will become one of the youngest Cabinet members in American history. (I encourage you to read his remarkable personal story, which he laid out in a Huffington Post article a few years ago.) The team here is extraordinary. Each of our offices is headed by a genuine national leader from whom I’ve learned enormously, and at the center of that team is a senior leadership I’ve depended upon daily – in addition to John, our Under Secretary Ted Mitchell, a visionary whose ideas and moral force are helping to change the landscape of opportunity in higher education; and my Chief of Staff, Emma Vadehra, who understands how to accomplish change in education as well as anyone else in this country. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to announce a replacement for John to carry out the duties of Deputy Secretary soon, and I owe this team enormous thanks for their dedication and sacrifice. I owe a similarly profound thanks to each of you. The work of this Department is exceptionally ambitious – to ensure that every student in this country enjoys genuine opportunity to learn, to grow, to excel. As a comparatively small team, often under challenging conditions and timelines, our staff has continued to offer example after example of dedication beyond the call of duty. I’m honored to have led you, and delighted by what good hands this Department will be in. I ask each of you that you offer John and his team the same commitment I’ve witnessed from you. As I think about our shared work here, and about what it has meant to spend seven years serving the President and the country, I think about two students I’ve met in recent years. The first is Brandon, a young man I met at a round table discussion in Denver as part of My Brother’s Keeper. Brandon told a story I will never forget, about how his life had slipped off the tracks in elementary school. He had scrawled graffiti in a bathroom stall when he was 11 years old. His school, which had zero tolerance discipline policies, called the police, and he ended up being sentenced to pick up trash along the highway alongside adult criminals. He also ended up with a criminal record, and years later, when he tried to become a police officer, the department turned him away because of that record. For me, Brandon will always be a reminder of the distance we have to go as adults, to do right by our young people. The second person is Russhaun Johnson. Russhaun had the deck stacked against him growing up in Des Moines, Iowa. His dad wasn’t around; he lived with his mom, who was a drug addict, until she was incarcerated for more than four years while he was in middle and high school. No one in his family was there for him, and many nights, he slept on park benches. He described himself as “two steps behind” from the start in school. What got Russhaun on a track to success, he says, was his teachers and counselors, who helped him see himself as the brilliant young man he is. He’s now an accomplished poet, and the president of his senior class. A few weeks ago, the whole country had the opportunity to witness his brilliance, as he introduced President Obama to a cheering crowd on the first day of our bus tour. Russhaun told the audience he is planning to go to college to become a teacher, because he wants to offer a next generation of young people the possibility that the caring educators
around him helped him see in himself. He is an example, to me, of what can go right for our children when our schools understand who they can become – and act on that knowledge. When I think about the life paths of these two young people, I know that no one will fight harder for students like them than John King and the team he will lead here. I thank you for being part of that team, and promise you that you are in good hands.
–Arne
Nick Anderson contributed to this report.
Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly reported that Duncan is the longest-serving education secretary. In fact, Clinton administration Education Secretary Richard Riley served longer. ||||| who in continuing to attack those who oppose Common Core
The following appeared on the Facebook page of Gretchen Moran Laskas, whose son attends school in Fairfax County VA, and is crossposted here with her permission:
I've talked a bit about my son Brennan, and his struggles in school. This was a child he was what they call a "late bloomer. By the standards of the curriculum in place now, throughout most of his life, he was often considered a "failure" (let alone brilliant) by many people in the school system. I had a speech pathologist tell me that he would never learn to speak clearly because I hadn't enrolled him in early intervention speech before kindergarten. I had a case worker tell me to my face that I "need to accept that he isn't college material." I had a school counselor as late as eighth grade try and tell me that she was "legally barred" from putting him in honors classes. (That was a flat out lie and let's just say that was a HUGE mistake on her part.)
Now here's the thing. Brennan has every advantage you can think of. He's white. He's upper-middle class. He has hyper-involved parents. He is in one of the best school districts in the country. And most importantly, for every idiot who told me something like I mention above, he had TEN teachers, administrators, case workers, counselors and people in his life who worked 150% for him. And for that, I will be forever grateful.
But the tighter we make the noose, the more children like Brennan, who do NOT have those advantages will fall through the cracks. I don't fight the Common Core because I think my child is brilliant, but because I'm tired of these one size fits all educational solutions. We've done that all through Brennan's educational life, and I'm just not willing to take the chance that we're going to do a better job through Katja's just because it's being proposed through a Democratic President rather than a Republican one. This goes beyond politics -- this is about my kids.
So yes, I'm opposed. Not because I don't understand it. Not because I think it will make my children look bad. But because I know that children already look bad -- and by the time they might get it together and look good the way Brennan could, it might be too late.
Because Brennan is just fine, thank you. The kid who would never speak clearly just finished his role in the fall play. The kid who wasn't college material is very much going to college. And the kid who was legally barred from taking honors classes just got a 4.1 GPA this quarter while taking four IB classes. Maybe Arne Duncan should have a talk with him. | – Education Secretary Arne Duncan—who upset a few people with his "white suburban moms" remark on Friday—fully back-peddled today and apologized for his "clumsy" phrasing, CNN reports. To recap, Duncan said he was fascinated by opposition to his plan for standardized testing because his opponents included "white suburban moms who—all of a sudden—[discovered that] their child isn't as bright as they thought they were, and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were." Well, his new opponents include people who aren't white, suburban, or moms—and a few who are: "This Obama educrat has stepped in it. Big time. Race card-wielding Education Secretary Arne Duncan is nothing but a corrupt and bankrupt bigot," writes conservative commentator Michelle Malkin. "Arne-if u are reading- you shld walk this back..very insensitive-and not right-moms care abt their kids!!" tweets Randi Winegarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. "I don't fight the Common Core because I think my child is brilliant, but because I'm tired of these one size fits all educational solutions," writes Gretchen Moran Laskas, a Virginia-area mom, at Daily Kos. Furman University professor PL Thomas blogs that he is upset over the overwhelming reaction to Duncan's "white moms" remark, when Duncan's agenda "disproportionately impacts black, brown, and poor children in powerfully negative ways." Education Department spokesman Massie Ritsch rose to Duncan's defense over the testing policy, Common Core State Standards, which is designed to make US students more competitive. "The far right and far left have made up their minds," Ritsch writes. "But there's angst in the middle—which includes many open-minded suburban parents—that needs to be addressed." |
Story highlights TEPCO found high radiation readings Saturday
It said the highest levels measured were so-called beta radiation
There's been a sharp spike in radiation levels measured in the pipes and containers holding water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.
But the company in charge of cleaning it up says that only a single drop of the highly contaminated water escaped the holding tanks.
Tokyo Electric Power Company said it is confident it can provide safety for workers dealing with the problem.
"We will find out the cause of this issue and make proper counter measures immediately, and continue to make every effort to secure safety of workers," the company said in a statement released Sunday.
TEPCO found high radiation readings at the contaminated water storage tanks and pipe Saturday. The four locations are the bottom of three tanks and a pipe connecting tanks in separate area.
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The highest reading as 1800 millisieverts per hour at the bottom fringe of the tank. 220 and 70 mSv were measured at the bottom of other two tanks. And TEPCO said they found a dried stain under the pipe with 230 mSv/h radiation measurement.
One drop of liquid fell when a staff member pressed on insulation material around the pipe. But TEPCO said no contaminated water leak is expected as there were no change in the water level in tanks.
The enormous tanks are identical to the container that was announced last week to have leaked 300 tons of highly toxic water and sparking a hike to the threat level to "serious."
TEPCO will investigate the cause and look further if there were any leakage.
But TEPCO also took issue with reporting by some news outlets that the new radiation levels were high enough to cause death after several hours of exposure.
It said the highest levels measured were so-called beta radiation, which quickly dissipates over short distances and is easily shielded through the use of thin sheets of metal and foil.
"Since beta radiation is weak and can be blocked by a thin metal sheet such as aluminum, we think that we can control radiation exposure by using proper equipments and cloths," the company added. ||||| 1 of 2. Highly contaminated water leaked from a large storage tank is seen at the H6 area of the contaminated water storage tanks, at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture in this February 20, 2014 handout photo released by TEPCO.
TOKYO (Reuters) - The operator of Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant said on Thursday that 100 metric tons of highly contaminated water had leaked out of a tank, the worst incident since last August, when a series of radioactive water leaks sparked international alarm.
Tokyo Electric Power Co told reporters the latest leak was unlikely to have reached the ocean. But news of the leak at the site, devastated by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, further undercut public trust in a utility rocked by a string of mishaps and disclosure issues.
"We are taking various measures, but we apologize for worrying the public with such a leak," said Masayuki Ono, a spokesman for the utility, also known as Tepco.
"Water is unlikely to have reached the ocean as there is no drainage in that tank area."
Tepco said water overflowed from a large storage tank at the site late on Wednesday after a valve had remained open by mistake and sent too much contaminated water into a separate holding area.
A worker patrolling the area, around 700 meters from the ocean, spotted drips of water leaking through a drain attached to the side of the tank.
The utility has been harshly criticized for its response to the three nuclear meltdowns following the quake and tsunami at the plant, 220 km (130 miles) north of Tokyo.
A nuclear regulatory official last week said Tepco delayed release of record-high measurements of strontium-90 in groundwater despite repeated requests by the regulator.
Initial measurements of the latest incident showed the leaked water had a reading of 230 million becquerels per liter of beta-emitting radioactive isotopes, including strontium 90.
That level is almost equal to that recorded in last year's leak of 300 metric tons of contaminated water, deemed a "serious incident", or level three, on the seven-point international scale for radiological releases.
The legal limit for releasing strontium 90 into the ocean is 30 becquerels per liter.
(Additional reporting by Kentaro Hamada; Editing by Dominic Lau and Ron Popeski) | – New tests at Fukushima have found radiation levels around its tanks are up to 18 times worse than previously thought—high enough to kill someone within four hours of exposure, reports the BBC. What's caused the alarming spike? More accurate measuring equipment, says plant operator TEPCO. The previous equipment could only read up to 100 millisieverts an hour. Its estimation of the radiation level at the time? 100 millisieverts an hour. The new equipment recorded readings of up to 1,800 millisieverts an hour. TEPCO also says there was a recent leak in one of the tanks—but insists only a single drop of radioactive water escaped. It says the drop fell when someone pressed the insulation around the pipe at the bottom of the tank, CNN reports. The tank is identical to the one that has already leaked 300 tons of water. In related news, a new study estimates that the radioactive plume of water released by the 2011 disaster will hit US waters in early 2014 and peak in 2016, reports NBC News. Fortunately, ocean currents will have diluted the radioactive material down to safe levels by then. |
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian health officials said on Thursday they have confirmed two cases of transmission of Zika through transfusions of blood from donors who had been infected with the mosquito-borne virus that is spreading rapidly through the Americas.
A technician of Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) inspects an Aedes aegypti mosquito in Recife, Brazil, January 27, 2016. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
Marcelo Addas Carvalho, director of the Blood Center at the Sao Paulo state University of Campinas, said genetic testing confirmed that a man who received a blood transfusion using blood from a donor with Zika in March 2015 became infected with the virus, although the patient did not develop symptoms.
Earlier, the health department of Campinas, an industrial city near Sao Paulo, said a man with gunshot wounds became infected with Zika after multiple blood transfusions in April 2015 that included blood donated by an infected person.
Carvalho said the infection of the wounded man was most probably caused by the transfusion but genetic tests have not yet been conducted to confirm it. He said it was very unlikely the infection was caused by a mosquito bite because the patient was in a hospital intensive care unit for three months.
The patient later died from his gunshot wounds and not the Zika infection, local health officials and Carvalho said.
“The two cases can be considered transmission of the virus through blood transfusion, with greater certainty in the first because we did genetic sequencing comparing the virus in the donor and to the virus in the recipient,” he said by telephone.
Zika is usually contracted via mosquito bites, so transmission of the illness through blood transfusions adds another concern to efforts to contain the outbreak. Some countries have tightened procedures for blood donations, to protect blood supplies.
Zika has been reported in 30 countries since it first appeared in the Americas last year in Brazil, where it has been linked to thousands of babies being born with microcephaly. This is a condition where infants have abnormally small heads and often have underdeveloped brains.
Brazil’s Health Ministry, leading efforts to contain a public health emergency in the country worst hit by the virus, emphasized in a statement that the recipient died of his wounds and not from the Zika infection.
It said it was reinforcing instructions to blood banks that people infected with Zika or dengue not be permitted to donate blood for 30 days after full recovery from the active stage of Zika infection.
On Tuesday, the American Red Cross urged prospective donors who have visited Zika outbreak zones to wait at least 28 days before giving blood, but said the risk of transmitting the virus through blood donations was “extremely” low in the continental United States. The agency asked donors who give blood and subsequently develop symptoms consistent with Zika within 14 days to notify the Red Cross so the product can be quarantined.
Also causing concern is the possibility of transmission through sexual contact. Health officials in Texas reported on Tuesday that a person in Dallas became infected after having sex with another person who had traveled in Venezuela, where the virus is circulating. ||||| All U.S. Blood Donations Should Be Screened For Zika, FDA Says
Enlarge this image toggle caption Toby Talbot/AP Toby Talbot/AP
The Food and Drug Administration is recommending that blood banks screen all blood donations in the U.S. for the Zika virus.
It's a major expansion from a Feb. 16 advisory that limited such screening to areas with active Zika virus transmission.
In a statement released Friday, the FDA says all those areas are currently in compliance with blood screening, but that expanded testing is now needed.
"As new scientific and epidemiological information regarding Zika virus has become available, it's clear that additional precautionary measures are necessary," the FDA's acting chief scientist, Luciana Borio, said in the statement.
The expansion of testing won't happen all at once. The FDA is advising blood establishments in 11 states to begin testing within the next four weeks. Those states include Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Texas.
These states are in proximity to areas where Zika is actively spreading via mosquitoes or where there are a significant number of cases related to other exposures, including sexual transmission.
Within 12 weeks, blood facilities in all states should be testing donations for Zika, the FDA says.
Currently, Zika is being spread by mosquitoes in South Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as most countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America. There are a total of 2,517 cases of Zika in the U.S. states and D.C., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 9,011 more in U.S. territories.
Most of the cases within the U.S. are related to travel abroad or sexual transmission. The cases in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are a mix of travel-related cases and locally acquired infections via mosquitoes or sex.
In issuing the new recommendations, the agency noted that 4 out of 5 people infected with Zika virus never develop symptoms. Thus, questions that blood banks routinely ask about the risks of disease might not catch people who have been exposed and who have been infected with the Zika virus.
Zika virus infection during pregnancy has caused serious birth defects in a few cases in the U.S. and hundreds of cases in Central and South America where infants have been born with microcephaly, a condition where the brain and skull are malformed.
There have been no cases of Zika related to blood transfusions in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"There is still much uncertainty regarding the nature and extent of Zika virus transmission," says Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. "At this time, the recommendation for testing the entire blood supply will help ensure that safe blood is available for all individuals who might need transfusion."
In a news conference Friday, Marks said that there had been one case in Florida where a unit of donated blood was tested and taken out of the blood supply. Other units where Zika is suspected are currently under investigation, he said. | – First mosquitoes; then sex; now blood transfusions. On Thursday, officials in Brazil announced two cases of patients receiving the rapidly spreading Zika virus through donated blood, Reuters reports. According to the Wall Street Journal, the first case was in March after a patient received a blood transfusion during a liver transplant. The second case was in April after the patient was shot and needed multiple transfusions. “The capacity of Zika to spread through blood transfusions needs to be evaluated, as well as the blood protection measures that should be adopted based on the new findings,” Brazil's Health Ministry says. A Brazilian infectious disease specialist tells the Journal "there is no reason for panic." A number of countries are issuing stricter rules for blood donations in the face of the Zika outbreak. The Health Ministry is reiterating that blood banks shouldn't accept any donations from people who've had Zika until 30 days after they've fully recovered. And the American Red Cross says people who've been to Central or South America, Mexico, or the Caribbean should wait 28 days before donating blood. Still, the Red Cross states the risk for Americans receiving blood transfusions is "extremely low." Zika first appeared in Brazil last year. Since then, it's infected an estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million Brazilians and popped up in 30 countries. The virus only rarely causes serious symptoms in those who contract it, but it has been linked to thousands of cases of microcephaly in Brazilian babies. |
A 19-year-old Chicago woman was discovered dead early Sunday inside a freezer at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, police said.Kenneka Jenkins was last seen Saturday morning and reported missing at about 1:15 p.m. She was attending a party Friday night on the ninth floor of the hotel.Her family said that police told them that Jenkins was intoxicated when she walked into the freezer.However, the family believes there is more to the story.Her mother Tereasa Martin said she is horrified."It's something that no one could ever imagine. It's unbelievable," Martin said.Jenkins' sister told police that Jenkins was seen leaving her Chicago home at 11:30 p.m. Friday for a party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 5440 North River Road. The sister said that she had received a text message from Jenkins at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.After being contacted by Rosemont police, the staff of the Crowne Plaza searched the hotel and Jenkins was discovered inside a freezer early Sunday morning. Police said her body was beyond resuscitation and was pronounced dead at the scene.The Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel and Conference Center released a statement saying, "The Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel and Conference Center holds the safety, security and well-being of our guests and employees as our top priority and concern. We are saddened by this news, and our thoughts are with the young woman and her family during this difficult time. The hotel staff will continue to cooperate fully with local authorities. All further questions should be directed to the Rosemont Police Department." ||||| (CNN) Authorities have closed the investigation into the death of a young Chicago woman whose body was found in a hotel's walk-in freezer, saying it was accidental and there was no reason to suspect foul play.
Police in Rosemont, a suburb northwest of Chicago, had been investigating the death of 19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins since her body was found September 10 after she attended a party at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel.
"Our detectives reported no signs of foul play throughout the whole investigation," Chief Donald E. Stephens III with the Rosemont Police Department said in a statement. "There is no evidence that Ms. Jenkins was forced to drink alcohol or consume any narcotics while at the hotel."
Investigators concluded Jenkin's death was accidental after retracing her path to the cooler that contained the freezer where her body was found, reviewing hours of surveillance video and interviewing most of the people that were at the party that night.
"There is no evidence that indicates any other conclusion," Stephens said.
On Friday, police released audio recordings, hours of video surveillance footage and a series of graphic photos showing Jenkins' body on the floor inside the freezer.
An attorney for Jenkins' family said the photos were disturbing and raised more question about what happened that night, CNN affiliate WBBM-TV reported
She was alone
Jenkins' death sparked accusations on social media of foul play. Stephens said Friday that "none were supported by facts."
"The death of any child is tragic; but the death and circumstances surrounding Ms. Jenkins are especially sad," the police chief said.
Surveillance video from inside the Crowne Plaza, released by the Rosemont Public Safety Department, showed Jenkins staggering through the hotel's hallways before she disappeared.
In the footage, Jenkins is first seen walking through the hotel with several unidentified people around 1:13 a.m. on September 9. She appears to be steady.
But when Jenkins is next sighted exiting an elevator at 3:25 a.m., she is alone and visibly impaired, and staggers out of the elevator, briefly leaning on the wall for support before heading down the hallway.
The footage showed Jenkins entering a kitchen at approximately 3:32 a.m. but does not show her entering the cooler and freezer, where she was found nearly 24 hours later, because no cameras show the doors directly.
Police don't believe anyone else came in contact with Jenkins after she entered the kitchen. There is only one entrance into the kitchen and anyone who would have walked toward the freezer would have activated a surveillance camera there, Stephens said.
Since Jenkins entered the kitchen until her body was discovered only a security guard was seen entering the area.
"He did not get close to the freezer and was never out of sight of the camera," Stephens said.
No drugs, signs of trauma
The Cook County Medical Examiner's office had recently classified Jenkins' death as accidental.
Her cause of death was hypothermia, the coroner said.
The medical examiner explained that levels of alcohol higher than the driving limit and topiramate, a drug most commonly used to treat epilepsy and migraines, were also contributing factors.
"When combined, the effect of either or both drugs is enhanced. Topiramate, like alcohol, can cause dizziness, impaired memory, impaired concentration, poor coordination, confusion and impaired judgment. Central nervous system depression, or impairment, combined with cold exposure can hasten the onset of hypothermia and death," the office said in a released.
No external or internal trauma as well as "hundreds of drugs of abuse, medications and other chemical compounds" -- along with date-rape drugs -- were found on Jenkins' body, the coroner said. | – The family of a young Chicago woman who was found dead inside a hotel freezer is questioning the police account of how she got there. Kenneka Jenkins, 19, was found dead on Sunday, one day after she had wandered away from a party in a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the Chicago Tribune reports. Police told Jenkins' mother, Tereasa Martin, her daughter walked into the freezer while drunk, but a "horrified" Martin says she's not buying it. Martin says she doubted her daughter, if impaired, could have opened the freezer's double steel doors. "She didn't just pop them open," Martin says. Jenkin's sister adds, per ABC7, that the police theory doesn't "add up." Jenkins' family rushed to the hotel near O'Hare Airport at 5am Saturday, after Martin got a call from her daughter's friends saying she had gone missing. The family's last contact with Jenkins was a text message she sent her sister at 1:30am, per the Tribune. Hotel staff rebuffed the family's initial pleas to review security camera footage, saying they needed a missing persons report from police. It took Martin several hours to get one after police told her to wait in case Jenkins came home. A search of the hotel didn't begin until after 1pm on Saturday. An initial review of surveillance video didn't turn up images of Jenkins, but Martin says a second look after the family complained turned up pictures of her daughter "staggering" near the front desk. Jenkins was finally found in a walk-in freezer at 12:48am on Sunday, in an area of the hotel undergoing renovation. "It's something that no one could ever imagine," says Martin. "It's unbelievable." |
Story highlights New guidelines could double the number of folks eligible for medication, experts say
These guidelines call for a focus on risk factors, not just cholesterol levels
The policy say it's important how patients lower "bad" cholesterol
If you're not on medicine to lower your cholesterol yet, you might be soon.
In what's being called a tectonic shift in the way doctors will treat high cholesterol, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology on Tuesday released new treatment guidelines calling for a focus on risk factors rather than just cholesterol levels.
The new guidelines could double the amount of people on medication to lower their cholesterol, experts say.
"This is an enormous shift in policy as it relates to who should be treated for high levels of cholesterol," said Dr. Steven Nissen, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
The biggest change from the old guidelines, he says: Ignore the numbers.
"For many years, the goal was to get the 'bad' cholesterol levels -- or LDL levels -- below 100," Nissen said. "Those targets have been completely eliminated in the new guidelines, and the threshold for treatment has been eliminated."
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In their place, the guidelines suggest using specific risk factors to determine who should be treated with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, and who should simply make lifestyle changes.
Among the four questions to ask to determine risks: Do you have heart disease? Do you have diabetes (Type 1 or 2)? Do you have a bad cholesterol level more than 190? And is your 10-year risk of a heart attack greater than 7.5%?
According to the new guidelines, if you answered yes to any of those four questions, you should be on a statin. Period.
New drugs could drop cholesterol to extreme lows
For those who do not fit those criteria, the committee behind the new policy says lifestyle and behavior management should be sufficient to help manage high cholesterol.
"The focus for years has been on getting the LDL low," said Dr. Neil Stone, committee chairman.
"Our guidelines are not against that. We're simply saying how you get the LDL low is important. Considering all the possible treatments, we recommend a heart-healthy lifestyle and statin therapy for the best chance of reducing your risk of stroke or heart attack in the next 10 years."
Calculating risks
So how do you and your doctor determine if your 10-year risk of a heart attack is above 7.5% and you should be put on a statin?
A simple calculation, said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, chairman of the committee that developed the equation.
"We were able to generate very robust risk equations for both non-Hispanic white men and women as well as African-American men and women," Lloyd-Jones said. "Those equations factor in age, sex, race, total and HDL ('good') cholesterol levels, blood pressure levels, blood pressure treatment status as well as diabetes and current smoking status."
Each of those factors is assigned a numerical value and can be used to determine individual risk percentage using an online calculator.
The hope, Lloyd-Jones said, is that by doing these calculations, patients can be more informed about their risks when going to see doctors.
"The greatest strength behind these guidelines is that they hit at the heart of prevention -- which is that lifestyle, rather than treating isolated risk factors, is the key to reducing risk of chronic disease," said Dr. Sharon Horesh Bergquist, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University, in an e-mail.
"We tend to focus on 'quick fix' answers such as a pill ... whereas the risk reduction from lifestyle changes, such (as) exercise three-four days a week, reduces risk nearly double to that from any one of the medication interventions."
Double the prescriptions
By changing the way doctors evaluate a patient for statin therapy, Nissen said these new guidelines will effectively double the number of Americans eligible for statin therapy, bringing the total to about 72 million.
How to boost your 'good' cholesterol
So does this mean big bucks for the pharmaceutical companies? Nissen said no -- and in fact, it may mean a downturn in their business.
"Now, except for Crestor, they're virtually all generic -- you can get a three-month supply for $10," he said. "So there's really no money to be made with statins anymore."
He goes on to say that while prescriptions for these drugs will increase dramatically, the guidelines all but shunned other cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Zetia, a big moneymaker for Merck & Co.
Aside from the financial aspects of medicating 35 million more Americans, using statins in a much broader population has been controversial.
Some people, such as cancer expert Dr. David Agus, advocate giving everyone older than 45 a statin, due both to cholesterol-lowering properties and potential benefit in reducing cancer.
Others say that with the potential side effects from statin use -- muscle pains and soreness, a potential moderate increase in liver disease and a risk for developing Type 2 diabetes -- they should be used with care.
Nissen, who strongly disagrees with Agus' suggestion on statins, said a measured approach is best.
"If you have a young woman who is otherwise healthy, giving (her) a statin doesn't make any sense at all," Nissen said. "I do believe the evidence is solid that if you have risk, that statins are enormously beneficial."
Other recommendations
In addition to the guidelines on evaluating cholesterol risk, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology released two other sets of guidelines relating to overall heart health.
One report gives guidelines for eating a heart-healthy diet, including reducing saturated and trans fats as well as limiting sodium to 2,400 milligrams per day -- 30% less than the average American consumes on a daily basis.
Cholesterol levels: What numbers should you aim for?
The other report dealt with treatment guidelines for physicians on managing weight loss in their patients. They include a call to create individualized weight loss plans and recommend counseling with a dietitian or other certified weight loss professional for at least six months.
That report also goes on to suggest that doctors should begin offering bariatric surgery as a potentially viable option to improve health for patients with a body mass index over 40, or those with a BMI over 35 and other complicating factors. ||||| The nation's first new guidelines in a decade for preventing heart attacks and strokes call for twice as many Americans _ one-third of all adults _ to consider taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
FILE - This undated photo provided by by Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., shows Atorvastatin Calcium tablets, a generic form of Lipitor, which is being sold under a deal with Pfizer. The nation's first new... (Associated Press)
The guidelines, issued Tuesday by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, are a big change. They use a new formula for estimating someone's risk that includes many factors besides cholesterol, the main focus now. They take aim at strokes, not just heart attacks. And they set a lower threshold for using medicines to reduce risk.
The definition of high cholesterol isn't changing, but the treatment goal is. Instead of aiming for a specific number, using whatever drugs get a patient there, the advice stresses statins such as Lipitor and Zocor and identifies four groups of people they help the most.
"The emphasis is to try to treat more appropriately," said Dr. Neil Stone, the Northwestern University doctor who headed the cholesterol guideline panel. "We're going to give statins to those who are the most likely to benefit."
Doctors say the new approach will limit how many people with low heart risks are put on statins simply because of a cholesterol number. Yet under the new advice, 33 million Americans _ 44 percent of men and 22 percent of women _ would meet the threshold to consider taking a statin. Under the current guidelines, statins are recommended for only about 15 percent of adults.
Some doctors not involved in writing the guidance worry that it will be tough to understand.
"It will be controversial, there's no question about it. For as long as I remember, we've told physicians and patients we should treat their cholesterol to certain goal levels," said the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Steven Nissen. "There is concern that there will be a lot of confusion about what to do."
The government's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute appointed expert panels to write the new guidelines in 2008, but in June said it would leave drafting them to the Heart Association and College of Cardiology. New guidelines on lifestyle and obesity also came out Tuesday, and ones on blood pressure are coming soon.
Roughly half the cholesterol panel members have financial ties to makers of heart drugs, but panel leaders said no one with industry connections could vote on the recommendations.
"It is practically impossible to find a large group of outside experts in the field who have no relationships to industry," said Dr. George Mensah of the heart institute. He called the guidelines "a very important step forward" based on solid evidence, and said the public should trust them.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. High cholesterol leads to hardened arteries that can cause a heart attack or stroke. Most cholesterol is made by the liver, so diet changes have a limited effect on it.
Millions of Americans take statins, which reduce cholesterol dramatically and have other effects that more broadly lower the chances of heart trouble.
The patents on Lipitor, Zocor and other statins have expired, and they are widely available in generic versions for as little as a dime a day. One that is still under patent protection is AstraZeneca's Crestor, which had sales of $8.3 billion in 2012.
Despite a small increased risk of muscle problems and accelerating diabetes in patients already at risk for it, statins are "remarkably safe drugs" whose benefits outweigh their risks, said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, preventive-medicine chief at Northwestern.
Current guidelines say total cholesterol should be under 200, and LDL, or "bad cholesterol," under l00. Other drugs such as niacin and fibrates are sometimes added to statins to try to reach those goals, but studies show they don't always lower the chances of heart problems.
"Chasing numbers can lead us to using drugs that haven't been proven to help patients. You can make someone's lab test look better without making them better," said Yale University cardiologist Dr. Harlan Krumholz, who has long urged the broader risk approach the new guidelines take.
They say statins do the most good for:
_People who already have heart disease.
_Those with LDL of 190 or higher, usually because of genetic risk.
_People ages 40 to 75 with Type 2 diabetes.
_People ages 40 to 75 who have an estimated 10-year risk of heart disease of 7.5 percent or higher, based on the new formula. (This means that for every 100 people with a similar risk profile, seven or eight would have a heart attack or stroke within 10 years.)
Aspirin _ widely used to lower the risk of strokes and heart attacks _ is not addressed in the guidelines. And many drugs other than statins are still recommended for certain people, such as those with high triglycerides.
Patients should not stop taking any heart drug without first checking with their doctor.
The guidelines also say:
_Adults 40 to 79 should get an estimate every four to six years of their chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke over the next decade using the new formula. It includes age, sex, race, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and smoking. If risk remains unclear, doctors can consider family history or three other tests. The best one is a coronary artery calcium test, an X-ray to measure calcium in heart arteries.
_For those 20 to 59, an estimate of their lifetime risk of a heart attack or stroke can be considered using traditional factors like cholesterol and blood pressure to persuade them to change their lifestyle.
_To fight obesity, doctors should develop individualized weight loss plans including a moderately reduced calorie diet, exercise and behavior strategies. The best ones offer two or three in-person meetings a month for at least six months. Web or phone-based programs are a less-ideal option.
_Everyone should get at least 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise three or four times a week.
_People should eat a "dietary pattern" focused on vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Include low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish, beans and healthy oils and nuts. Limit sweets, sweet drinks, red meat, saturated fat and salt.
"I don't like the concept of `good foods' and `bad foods,'" said Dr. Robert Eckel, a University of Colorado cardiologist who worked on the guidelines. "We really want to emphasize dietary patterns."
___
Online:
Risk formula: http://my.americanheart.org/cvriskcalculator
Guidelines on cholesterol: http://bit.ly/1j2hDpH
Lifestyle: http://bit.ly/16ZnV7e
Overweight: http://bit.ly/1bsdFG2
Risk Assessment: http://bit.ly/19hzaV9
Cholesterol info: http://tinyurl.com/2dtc5vy
Heart facts: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/127/1/e6
___
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP ||||| Skip in Skip x Embed x Share The American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology have released new guidelines today to try and prevent heart attacks and strokes. They focus on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, a new way to assess risk and a healthy lifestyle. (No AP
The updated recommendations for treating cholesterol are "a huge, huge departure" from doctors' usual procedure.
People take the statin Lipitor for lowering blood cholesterol. (Photo: Mel Evans, AP) Story Highlights According to the new criteria, 31% of adults are good candidates for statins, compared with 15.5% now
Some experts worry about exposing more people to statins' side effects, including higher risk of diabetes
The guidelines eliminate benchmark numbers for cholesterol readings
Twice as many Americans will be eligible for cholesterol-lowering drugs, based on controversial new heart guidelines from two of the USA's leading cardiovascular associations.
The number of adults considered likely to benefit from statins will rise from about 15.5% today to 31%, according to the new criteria, developed by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. While statins have been widely prescribed to reduce the risk of heart attacks, the new guidelines recommend that they also be considered for people at high risk of stroke.
STORY: New guidelines for treating obesity, too
That advice could lead doctors to prescribe statins to millions more people, says Steven Nissen, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who wasn't involved in the new guidelines.
"It's going to cause a huge conversation," says Mariell Jessup, president of the heart association. "It may be very controversial — which is fine. Controversy means discussion."
Authors of the new guidelines say they hope to get statins to more patients who need them, while avoiding unnecessary prescriptions for people unlikely to benefit.
The guidelines also call for doctors to work closely with patients to improve their diets and increase exercise.
Rita Redberg, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco, says she is concerned about exposing more patients to statins' side effects, which include an increased risk of diabetes, as well as muscle pain.
The average patient is likely to notice two major changes in the way that doctors manage their cholesterol, experts say.
For years, doctors often prescribed statins based on patients' cholesterol levels, especially their LDL, known as "bad" cholesterol. The new guidelines advise doctors to base their decisions on a patient's overall risk, rather than just their cholesterol. Nissen notes that even patients with normal cholesterol can have heart attacks.
"It's a huge, huge departure from the way that people have been thinking about cholesterol and heart disease," says Harlan Krumholz, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine. "Doctors today are obsessed with numbers."
The guidelines identify four high-risk groups who could benefit from statins: people with pre-existing heart disease, such as those who have had a heart attack; people ages 40 to 75 who have diabetes; patients ages 40 to 75 with at least a 7.5% risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the next decade, according to a formula described in the guidelines; and patients with the sort of super-high cholesterol that sometimes runs in families, as evidenced by an LDL of 190 milligrams per deciliter or higher.
These changes will help doctors to focus not just on "lab values," but on the whole patient, including a patient's weight, blood pressure, use of tobacco, diet, physical activity and other considerations, Krumholz says.
Doctors have focused heavily in recent years on using drugs to reduce LDL to certain benchmark levels: under 130 for most people; 100 for people at high-risk; under 70 for those at the highest risk, such as those who have just survived a heart attack. Doctors have raised or lowered medication doses to help patients meet these targets, Nissen says.
The new guidelines get rid of these targets, says Carl Orringer, a cardiologist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. Instead, doctors are encouraged to put patients on doses proven to work.
The expert panel decided to eliminate these benchmarks because no one has ever tested them in a randomized, controlled trial — the gold standard for medical evidence, Nissen says. While studies clearly show that lower LDL is better, there's really no data to support using one cutoff or another.
Getting doctors to change their practices could be difficult, Nissen says.
That's because numbers are easy to understand, both for busy physicians and patients without a medical background. Having a "target" cholesterol in mind has seemed helpful to many doctors and patients, because it has given them goals to work toward.
About 600,000 Americans die from heart disease every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Contributing: Nanci Hellmich
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1ckPEiz ||||| The new guidelines, formulated by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology and based on a four-year review of the evidence, simplify the current complex, five-step process for evaluating who needs to take statins. In a significant departure, the new method also counts strokes as well as heart attacks in its risk calculations, a step that will probably make some additional people candidates for the drugs.
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It is not clear whether more or fewer people will end up taking the drugs under the new guidelines, experts said. Many women and African-Americans, who have a higher-than-average risk of stroke, may find themselves candidates for treatment, but others taking statins only to lower LDL cholesterol to target levels may no longer need them.
The previous guidelines put such a strong emphasis on lowering cholesterol levels by specific amounts that patients who did not hit their target levels just by taking statins often were prescribed additional drugs like Zetia, made by Merck. But the new guidelines say doctors should no longer prescribe those extra medicines because they have never been shown to prevent heart attacks or strokes.
Zetia has been viewed with increasing skepticism in recent years since studies showed it lowered LDL cholesterol but did not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease or death. Still, it is among Merck’s top-selling drugs, earning $2.6 billion last year. Another drug, Vytorin, which combines Zetia with a statin, brought in $1.8 billion in 2012, according to company filings. And in May, Merck won approval for another drug, Liptruzet, which also contains the active ingredient in Zetia and a statin, a development that surprised many cardiologists because of questions about its effectiveness.
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The new guidelines are part of a package of recommendations to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke that includes moderate exercise and a healthy diet. But its advice on cholesterol is the flash point, arousing the ire of critics who say the authors ignored evidence that did not come from gold-standard clinical trials and should also have counted less rigorous, but compelling, data.
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For example, Dr. Daniel J. Rader, the director of the preventive cardiovascular medicine and lipid clinic at the University of Pennsylvania, points to studies of people with genes giving them low LDL levels over a lifetime. Their heart attack rate is greatly reduced, he said, suggesting the benefits of long-term cholesterol reduction.
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Committee members counter his view, saying that cholesterol lowered by drugs may not have the same effect.
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Critics also question the use of a 10-year risk of heart attack or stroke as the measure for determining who should be treated. Many people will have a lower risk simply because they are younger, yet could benefit from taking statins for decades to keep their cholesterol levels low, they say.
Dr. Rader and other experts also worry that without the goad of target numbers, patients and their doctors will lose motivation to control cholesterol levels.
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Experts say it is still unclear how much the new guidelines will change clinical practice. Dr. Rader suspects many cardiologists will still strive for the old LDL targets, at least for patients with heart disease who are at high risk. “They are used to it and believe in it,” he said.
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Dr. Steven E. Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said he thought it would take years for doctors to change their practices.
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The process of developing the guidelines was rocky, taking at least twice as long as in the past. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute dropped out, saying that drafting guidelines was no longer part of its mission. Several committee members, including Dr. Rader, also dropped out, unhappy with the direction the committee was going.
The architects of the guidelines say their recommendations are based on the best available evidence. Large clinical trials have consistently shown that statins reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, but the committee concluded that there is no evidence that hitting specific cholesterol targets makes a difference. No one has ever asked in a rigorous study if a person’s risk is lower with an LDL of 70 than 90 or 100, for example.
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Dr. Neil J. Stone, the chairman of the committee and a professor of preventive cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said he was surprised by what the group discovered as it delved into the evidence. “We deliberated for several years,” he said, “and could not come up with solid evidence for targets.”
Dr. Nissen, who was not a member of the committee, agreed. “The science was never there” for the LDL targets, he said. Past committees “made them up out of thin air,” he added.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs conducted its own independent review and came to the same conclusion. About a year ago, the department, the nation’s largest integrated health care system, dropped its LDL targets, said Dr. John Rumsfeld, the V.A.'s national director of cardiology.
“It is a shift,” he acknowledged, “but I would argue that it is not a radical change but is a course correction.”
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Dr. Paul M. Ridker, the director of the center for cardiovascular disease prevention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, said he worried the new guidelines could easily lead to overtreatment. An older man with a low LDL level who smokes and has moderately elevated blood pressure would qualify for a statin under the new guidelines. But what he really needs is to stop smoking and get his blood pressure under control.
Dr. Stone said he hoped doctors would not reflexively prescribe a statin to such a patient. Doctors are supposed to talk to their patients and realize that, with a man like the one Dr. Ridker described, the real problem was not cholesterol.
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“We are taking people out of their comfort zone,” Dr. Stone said. “Instead of being reassured that reaching this number means they will be fine, we are asking, ‘What is the best therapy to do the job?’ ” ||||| (CNN) A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee this week recommended approval of two experimental new cholesterol-fighting drugs that could be more potent and carry fewer side effects than statins, which are among the most prescribed drugs in the United States.
The agency will likely follow the advisory committee's advice when it decides whether to approve the drugs, alirocumab (Praluent) from Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., and evolocumab (Repatha) from Amgen Inc., for patients later this summer.
The drugs represent the most important new class of cholesterol-lowering medications since the first statin was approved in 1987. Seven statins are available in the United States, including Zocor, Lipitor and Crestor.
The new drugs are a "powerful new way of lowering the bad form of cholesterol, and that has profound implications in dealing with the burden of vascular disease," which can lead to heart attacks and stroke, said Dr. Elliott Antman, president of the American Heart Association.
Although statins will continue to be a mainstay for the management of high levels of bad (LDL) cholesterol and reducing risk of heart attack and stroke, Antman said there are two groups of patients who could strongly benefit from having an alternative to statins.
One is the group that experiences severe side effects to statins, and as a result may stop taking them. The most common side effect is muscle pain and weakness, which is estimated to affect between 10% and 25% of users. In contrast, clinical trials of alirocumab and evolocumab did not find an increase in muscle pain among study participants taking these drugs for several months compared with those taking a placebo control.
The other group is people whose levels of LDL cholesterol still hover above the desirable range even after taking statins. Although a small subset of this group — about 1 in 500 of all people with high cholesterol — have a genetic predisposition (familial hypercholesterolemia) that could affect their response to statins, it is not clear why others do not get sufficient cholesterol-lowering benefit, Antman said.
"There is a tremendous unmet need" beyond statins, said Dr. Robert S. Rosenson, director of the Cardiometabolics Unit at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Patients who cannot tolerate, or do not respond adequately to, statins can take other medications but they are generally expensive and may not be that effective at reducing cholesterol, said Rosenson, who has been involved in trials of evolocumab and is on the international Data and Safety Monitoring Board for Sanofi-Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (which is sponsoring alirocumab).
In a study of nearly 4,500 patients, including those who did not tolerate or respond to statins, 90% of patients who took evolocumab along with standard therapy had LDL levels in the optimal range after three months, compared with 26% in the group that took the standard therapy alone (which depending on the care center could include medications and exercise and diet regimens).
In this study, the rates of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular disease were also lower (1%) in the evolocumab group compared with the standard therapy (2.2%). So far, clinical studies of alirocumab suggest it is similar in effectiveness to evolocumab. "Preliminarily, there appears to be no striking difference between the two," Antman said.
Although there has been some concern that the dramatic drop in LDL levels achieved with these drugs could actually be harmful, the concern has not panned out. "That is of course something that everybody has been watching, and I have been pleased with what I have seen to date," Antman said. He added that alirocumab and evolocumab may lower LDL down to between 30 and 40 milligrams/deciliter. (The optimal range is below 100 milligrams/deciliter.)
The potency of these drugs comes from the fact that they block a protein in the body called PCSK9, and are thus called PCSK9 inhibitors. The result of this inhibition is that more molecules known as LDL receptors are available on the surface of cells in the liver to take up LDL, clearing this bad form of cholesterol from the body.
There have also been concerns that alirocumab and evolocumab, like statins, may induce short-term memory loss. The FDA warned statin users about this possibility in 2012.
However, a study published on Monday made a strong case that statins are not responsible for short-term memory loss, and instead that patients are simply more likely to notice mental shortcomings after they start any new medication, statin or otherwise. Likewise, Antman said it is "very unlikely" that alirocumab and evolocumab could precipitate forgetfulness.
If the new drugs are approved, it is estimated they would cost between $7,000 and $12,000 a year per patient. In comparison, statins cost between $48 a year (for generic forms), up to between $500 and $7,000 a year (for brand-name drugs).
However, "if we [balance] the cost of these drugs over society and the cost to our health care system for caring for patients who suffer the consequences of vascular disease," Antman said, "it's possible that the calculus would suggest this could be a cost effective and attractive approach."
One downside to alirocumab and evolocumab is that they have to be injected, which could be more cumbersome for patients than taking a statin, which is a pill. "That was our initial concern [but] it's pretty easy and well tolerated by our patients," Rosenson said. Patients take an injection, via a device similar to the FlexPen for diabetes, once or twice a month.
Although PCSK9 inhibitors would at first probably be used primarily by patients who have bad reactions or do not respond to statins, these drugs could down the road be used more broadly in people with high cholesterol, Antman said. "If we were able to reduce the LDL levels in our population to ranges we have not seen before [because of the potency of these drugs], could we reduce the burden of vascular disease in our population and the economic cost to our society?" | – Two leading heart groups have announced changes being described as "tectonic" and "profound" in the way doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering statins. The shift from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology means that doctors will no longer focus on a patent's level of "bad cholesterol"—or LDL— and automatically prescribe statins when it reaches a certain level. Instead, they will focus on a range of overall health factors. "This is an enormous shift in policy as it relates to who should be treated for high levels of cholesterol," the chief of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic tells CNN. "For many years, the goal was to get the 'bad' cholesterol levels—or LDL levels—below 100," says Dr. Steven Nissen. "Those targets have been completely eliminated in the new guidelines, and the threshold for treatment has been eliminated." So who will be taking statins? People who have a history of heart trouble or diabetes, and—in the one exception to the notion of ignoring LDL levels—those who have dangerously high levels of 190 or more, reports the New York Times. Beyond that, the guidelines say anyone who has a 7.5% risk of developing heart disease, based on a new formula (the site is slow, apparently bogged down) also should take them, reports USA Today. In yet another major shift, the guidelines now apply to people at risk of stroke as well as a heart attack, reports AP. That change alone could double the number of people on the drugs, which are currently prescribed to 25% of Americans older than 40. |
What started the tension between a boastful pimp and an aspiring rapper at a posh Strip resort that culminated in three deaths on the iconic Strip last week remains unclear, but the multistate manhunt for the fugitive gunman ended Thursday with his arrest near Los Angeles, authorities said.
On the morning of Feb. 21, Ammar Harris and Kenneth Cherry Jr. only had a 15-minute window in which they crossed paths, a Las Vegas police report said.
During their brief encounter at Aria at CityCenter, Harris, 26, became so angry with Cherry, 27, that he took his rage to the streets as the two men pulled out of the resort's valet in their luxury vehicles.
Harris fired at least five rounds from the driver's seat of his Range Rover at Cherry's Maserati on Las Vegas Boulevard near Flamingo Road, the report said.
The shooting ignited a domino-effect crash in which a fatally wounded Cherry drove into a taxicab, causing a fireball explosion.
The chaos ended with three deaths and launched a search for Harris, who sped away with three women in the Range Rover.
Although the police report didn't say what Harris and Cherry argued about, law enforcement sources said the beef was over a working girl.
"It was all prostitution stuff," a source said.
Harris was arrested about noon Thursday in Studio City in Los Angeles.
During his arrest, he was at an apartment with a woman believed to be a prostitute, a source said. He was taken into custody peacefully at the Archview luxury apartment complex near the Hollywood Freeway and the Los Angeles River, at 4150 Arch Drive.
Harris was arrested by a team of FBI agents and police.
Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said during an afternoon press conference that Harris' arrest was a "multi-agency approach" between his department's homicide unit, and the Criminal Apprehension Team fugitive task force, as well as Los Angeles police and the FBI.
Gillespie said three people died because of Harris' "senseless act."
Cherry was killed by a gunshot. Cabdriver Michael Boldon, 62, and his passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash., died in the explosion.
Freddy Walters, 26, the passenger in Cherry's Maserati, was grazed by a bullet and treated at University Medical Center. He cooperated with police. Three other people also were injured.
Gillespie said Thursday's arrest was about more than detaining Harris. It was about keeping Southern Nevadans and tourists safe.
"I hope anyone out there watching understands clearly, if you live in this city, if you work in this city or you visit this city and you act like this person, we will find you. We will prosecute you and we will send you to prison," Gillespie said while speaking of Harris.
NEW DETAILS OF INCIDENT
The police report said Harris arrived at the Aria about 1:30 a.m. with three women. They were escorted into the Haze nightclub.
Cherry and Walters arrived shortly before 4 a.m., and were in Cherry's Maserati leaving the valet only 15 minutes later.
Harris approached the driver's door of Cherry's Maserati, paused for a second or two, and then continued into the Aria lobby, the report said.
At 4:16 a.m., Harris drove out of the Aria valet and then east on Harmon Avenue toward Las Vegas Boulevard.
The report said Harris and Cherry next saw each other at a traffic light on eastbound Harmon near the Strip.
A taxicab's video caught Harris' Range Rover as it pulled in front of Cherry's Maserati when the vehicles prepared to turn north on Las Vegas Boulevard.
Harris then began unleashing his anger toward Cherry.
"The driver of the Ranger Rover (Harris) rolled his window down and began yelling at the driver of the Maserati (Cherry)," the report said without detailing the exchange.
The taxi camera recorded the sounds of two gunshots at 4:19 a.m. Shortly after, three more gunshots are heard on the video.
The single, fatal shot to Cherry struck his left shoulder, and perforated his chest, the report said. He died at UMC less than 30 minutes after the shooting.
Cherry, went by the rap persona "Kenny Clutch." He rapped on YouTube videos about a life of drugs, guns and pimping.
But Cherry's father told the Review-Journal his son was an innocent victim.
Kenneth Cherry Sr., 52, said Thursday through an attorney he was elated by Harris' arrest. He buried his son Thursday.
Cherry Sr. said last week his son was a good kid who was only playing a tough guy in his amateur videos. He said his son was not a bad guy.
"It's like somebody took my heart and snatched it out of my chest," said the tearful father. "This has touched home in a way I wouldn't wish on nobody."
Child custody documents in Clark County family court paint a different picture of Cherry Jr., showing a violent man who chased down the mother of one of his children and beat her so hard that she started to see "stars."
The allegations were made in September 2011 in an affidavit that stems from a child custody dispute.
FAMILY RELIEVED BY ARREST
Family members of other victims were relieved Harris was arrested, saying they planned to attend Harris' court hearings.
"I'm ecstatic," said Tehran Boldon, 50, on Thursday. He bid farewell to his brother Wednesday at a church in North Las Vegas, where Michael Boldon, the cab driver, was carried away in a silver casket. "The sooner they caught him the better. And I'm really happy that they got him alive. That was really important to me and my family. Now he's going to have to face the music, and it won't be rap, either."
From Maple Valley, Wash., Sue VanRuff, a good friend of Sutton-Wasmund, said the entire community is "heartbroken," but that at least now there might be some justice.
"I'm glad the police caught up with him," said VanRuff, executive director of the Greater Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce, where Sutton-Wasmund worked as an independent contractor. "And we look forward to justice."
Sutton-Wasmund was in Las Vegas attending a trade show.
THE MANHUNT
A massive search ensued for the shooting suspect, a felon and proclaimed pimp. Billboards went up in Las Vegas as police sought the public's help in catching Harris, who bragged about his lifestyle openly on Twitter.
Investigators submitted an arrest warrant for Harris on three counts of murder last week. Harris, under the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, was arrested in Las Vegas for a 2010 prostitution case. He faced multiple charges, including robbery, sex assault, kidnapping and coercion with a weapon, in that case. It was dismissed in June 2012.
In 2004, Harris was convicted in South Carolina on a felony charge of possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol.
After the Strip shooting, the Range Rover was caught on Venetian surveillance video heading toward Koval Lane.
Police found the SUV on Saturday at The Meridian, the Las Vegas condominium complex where Harris lived.
Before the shooting, Harris openly boasted about his life as a pimp on social media websites, where he instructed his prostitutes and recruited new girls.
In a Twitter feed spanning several years, Harris flashed stacks of $100 bills and high-powered guns.
He flaunted expensive cars - a Bentley, an Aston Martin and a BMW - and reveled in luxury homes in two of the country's most glamorous cities.
He didn't just celebrate his birthday; he planned a boat party on the Atlantic Ocean, with a $1,000 bikini contest and a poster featuring beautiful women.
His Twitter account, deleted Tuesday after the Review-Journal reviewed a year's worth of tweets, paint a picture of an ambitious, controlling man who demeaned women and was undaunted by police, the courts or the dangers of his lifestyle.
PASSENGER NO LONGER SOUGHT
Harris' arrest came after Las Vegas police announced Wednesday night that a passenger in his car, 22-year-old Yenesis Alfonzo, also known as Tineesha Lashun Howard, was no longer being sought as a person of interest.
A source told the Review-Journal that Alfonzo was on a bus when she was stopped by authorities Wednesday somewhere in the southwestern United States.
She was headed home to Miami, the source said.
Police said they spoke to three female passengers in Harris' Range Rover and none were expected be prosecuted.
Alfonzo has an arrest record that includes soliciting prostitution, trick roll, grand larceny and possession of a stolen vehicle.
The Los Angeles Times reported at least one other woman inside Harris' Range Rover had a similar record.
Las Vegas investigators suspected Harris may have fled to California when they discovered his phone records showed he was communicating with people in the state, the Times also reported.
Las Vegas police said they were in touch with FBI and Los Angeles authorities throughout their search for Harris. Hundreds of tips were investigated by detectives, police said.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said Harris, who is facing nearly a dozen charges including three counts of murder, won't be given any leniency.
He called Harris' actions "reckless," with no regard for human life.
"I can't imagine anything more serious than firing a weapon from a moving vehicle into another moving vehicle on a corner such as Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo," Wolfson said. "Thank God only three people lost their lives. ... It could have been worse."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal. com or 702-383-4638. Contact reporter Tom Ragan at [email protected] or 702-224-5512. Contact reporter Mike Blasky at [email protected] or 702-383-0283. ||||| A felon sought in a shooting and fiery crash that killed three people on Las Vegas' main boulevard was taken into custody Thursday in Los Angeles, police said.
This photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows Ammar Harris in a booking photo from a 2012 arrest in Las Vegas. Police have identified Harris as a suspect in a shooting that... (Associated Press)
Ammar Harris was arrested by a team of police and federal agents in North Hollywood, Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones said.
The 26-year-old Harris is a self-described pimp who was the subject of a multi-state manhunt following the Feb. 21 gunfire and chain-reaction crash,
Police say he fired at least five shots from a sports utility vehicle into a Maserati sports car, killing a self-promoted rapper who he argued with earlier in the valet area of a Las Vegas Strip resort.
The Maserati slammed into a taxi, killing the driver and a businesswoman.
Earlier in the day, police said they had found and talked with all three women who were in the SUV with Harris.
Late Wednesday, police found SUV passenger Tineesha Lashun Howard in another state, and Jones said for the first time that police previously found and interviewed two other women who were with Howard in Harris' black Range Rover during the shooting.
Jones wouldn't release the names of the other passengers in Harris' SUV, but said none of the three passengers had been charged with a crime. Police are concerned about their safety, the police captain said.
Howard, a 22-year-old from Miami with a history of prostitution arrests, also uses the names Yenesis Alfonzo or Yani. She was identified by police on Tuesday as a person of interest in the case who might have been in danger.
Las Vegas police also sought Thursday to stop the circulation of several photos the department issued Tuesday and Wednesday in the search for Harris. Police said they depict people other than Howard.
Harris was arrested last year in Las Vegas in a 2010 prostitution case using the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris. He was charged with robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and coercion with a weapon, and police sought charges of pandering by force and felon in possession of concealed weapon. Court records show that case was dismissed last June.
Harris was convicted in South Carolina in 2004 of felony possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol and convicted that same year in Atlanta of a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge. ||||| DA might seek death penalty for Strip-shooting suspect arrested in LA
GENE BLEVINS / Los Angeles Daily News
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said the suspect in the Strip shooting that left three dead demonstrated “reckless disregard for human life,” and would not rule out seeking the death penalty after the man’s arrest Thursday in Los Angeles.
After a weeklong, nationwide manhunt, Ammar Harris, 26, was found at an apartment complex in Studio City, where Los Angeles Police Department officers and FBI agents converged around noon. Harris surrendered peacefully, Metro Police Lt. Ray Steiber said.
Harris faces three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, plus counts of discharging a firearm into a vehicle and discharging a firearm out of a vehicle, according to a criminal complaint filed last week by Clark County prosecutors. The murder charges ultimately may be changed to capital murder.
At the news conference announcing the arrest Thursday, Wolfson said his office would follow its usual procedure in determining whether Harris would face the death penalty. The decision to file capital murder charges is determined by a committee of prosecutors in the D.A.'s office.
But, Wolfson said, "I can tell you that Mr. Harris’ behavior is like none other that I've seen, and I've been in law enforcement for 32 years."
"I can’t imagine anything much more serious than firing a weapon from a moving vehicle into another moving vehicle on a corner such as Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo. That is reckless disregard for human life, and there are certain consequences when you engage in that kind of behavior," Wolfson said.
After his arrest, Harris was transported to the LAPD Metro Detention Center. "He's in the process of being booked. We'll see if he waives extradition," Steiber said during a 4 p.m. media conference.
Metro detectives were on their way to Los Angeles to interview Harris, Steiber added.
Harris, 26, had been identified by Metro as the person who fired gunshots from a Range Rover into a Maserati sports car in the early-morning hours of Feb. 21 as the vehicles made their way up the Las Vegas Strip.
Kenneth Cherry Jr., the driver of the Maserati, and a passenger were hit in the shooting. Cherry’s wounds caused him to lose control of the car, which ran a red light at Flamingo Road and crashed into a taxi.
The impact triggered an explosion in the cab. Three people were killed: Cherry; the cab driver, Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas; and cab passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, a businesswoman from Maple Valley, Wash. The criminal complaint filed against Harris identified the passenger who survived as Freddy Walters.
Cherry’s family expressed elation after learning of Harris’ arrest. But the timing of the news on the day of Cherry’s funeral in Oakland made the news bittersweet, the family said in a statement through their attorney, Bob Beckett. Cherry’s father, Kenneth Cherry Sr., expressed hope that the district attorney would seek the death penalty for Harris.
“It is consoling to know that the state of Nevada has the death penalty,” Cherry Sr. said in the statement.
An argument between Cherry and Harris reportedly occurred before both men left Aria early in the morning of Feb. 21, but detectives do not believe they knew each other previously, Steiber said.
Harris had eluded authorities since the shooting. The Range Rover was found Saturday in the parking lot of an apartment complex where Harris lived, not far from the shooting scene.
Harris was said to have been from South Carolina and spent time in Las Vegas, Atlanta and Miami. Authorities said earlier this week that their search for him stretched from Maine to California.
“(Harris) left Las Vegas shortly after this event occurred … He did leave Las Vegas pretty rapidly,” Steiber said.
Steiber did not give details about how police located and closed in on Harris.
The FBI told the Los Angeles Daily News that Harris was arrested around noon at a fourth floor apartment on Arch Drive, where he was staying with a friend. Harris’ friend lived in the Archview Apartments, the newspaper reported.
FBI special agent Scott Garriola told the Los Angeles paper that the friend was detained for questioning but was not thought to be involved in the incident.
Earlier Thursday, Metro Capt. Chris Jones reported three witnesses who had been with Harris the morning of the shooting had been located and interviewed. One, Yenesis Alfonso, also known as Tineesha Lishun Howard, was found outside Nevada and interviewed Wednesday evening after being named as a person of interest in the case.
Alfonso and the other two witnesses were cooperative and were not considered suspects, Jones said.
Harris was arrested in 2010 in Las Vegas on charges of pandering, kidnapping, sexual assault and coercion. He is also known by the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, and uses the nickname Jai’duh.
Alfonso’s arrest history includes soliciting prostitution, trespassing, possession of a stolen vehicle and grand larceny, trick roll, according to Metro Police.
On a networking website for models and photographers, someone who appears to be Harris posted a profile under the name Jai’duh.
The profile says Jai’duh is a fashion photographer looking for models, and includes samples of his work. The profile, created June 15, 2008, states: “Just relocated to Las Vegas from Atlanta. … So I’m fresh out here.”
Attempts to contact models who appeared to have worked with Harris were unsuccessful.
Harris had at least two twitter feeds, @NY and @jaiduh. The former was used more frequently and was deleted after the shooting, while the latter was seldom used and remains active but is a private account.
On social media, Harris flaunted a lavish lifestyle, posting videos of him counting $100 bills and partying in Miami and elsewhere.
A Lockerz.com account that appears to belong to Harris includes pictures of stacks of cash harnessed by rubber bands, expensive luxury cars and a Carbon 15 .223 caliber pistol.
In one photo that looks to be a screen capture of an instant message conversation, someone tells Harris: “A ho with no instructions, will fail in self-destruction.”
Harris also posted a picture of a credit card for “AMG Lifestyle” with the caption “Filing taxes on em lol,” and identified himself as AMG Management on his Twitter account.
A business entity search in Florida found an AMG Lifestyle Inc. registered to Alfonso.
Harris is scheduled to appear Monday morning in an L.A. courtroom on a fugitive warrant, Los Angeles County District Attorney Sandi Gibbons told Los Angeles Daily News. Next for Harris will be extradition back to Nevada, Metro indicated, where a warrant charging him with three counts of murder was issued Friday.
News of his arrest was greeted warmly.
“The Desert Cab family is just absolutely elated,” said Sandy Shaver, general manager of Desert Cab, the company whose taxi was involved in the collision that resulted in the deaths of Boldon and Sandra Sutton-Wasmund.
“It was so irritating that he was still out there. We couldn’t be happier right now,” Shaver said.
Shaver said word of the arrest spread rapidly on two-way radios used by drivers in their cabs.
“Nothing in the 20 years I’ve worked here has put such a weight on the company more than the loss of Michael (Boldon) and his passenger,” Shaver said. “It’s a big relief to us that he has been caught.” | – The multi-state manhunt after last week's shooting spree on the Vegas Strip is over. Police in Los Angeles today arrested 26-year-old Ammar Harris, reports the Las Vegas Sun. Harris is accused of firing at a vehicle driven by aspiring rapper Kenneth Cherry, which caused Cherry's car to slam into a taxi. Three people, including Cherry, were killed. Police named Harris as a suspect a few days ago, and he faces three counts of murder. Cops say three women were in Harris' Range Rover at the time of the shooting, but all have been located and none face charges, reports AP. Harris himself has a lengthy criminal history and has long boasted about his life as a pimp, literally, on Twitter, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The paper pulled a year's worth of tweets before the account got yanked, complete with images of Harris flashing wads of cash, guns, and fancy cars. The tweets depict "an ambitious, controlling man who demeaned women and was undaunted by police, the courts or the dangers of his lifestyle," says the R-J story. |
Fresh analysis of a reptile fossil is helping scientists solve an evolutionary puzzle - how snakes lost their limbs.
The 90 million-year-old skull is giving researchers vital clues about how snakes evolved.
Comparisons between CT scans of the fossil and modern reptiles indicate that snakes lost their legs when their ancestors evolved to live and hunt in burrows, which many snakes still do today.
The findings show snakes did not lose their limbs in order to live in the sea, as was previously suggested.
Scientists used CT scans to examine the bony inner ear of Dinilysia patagonica, a 2-metre long reptile closely linked to modern snakes. These bony canals and cavities, like those in the ears of modern burrowing snakes, controlled its hearing and balance.
They built 3D virtual models to compare the inner ears of the fossils with those of modern lizards and snakes. Researchers found a distinctive structure within the inner ear of animals that actively burrow, which may help them detect prey and predators. This shape was not present in modern snakes that live in water or above ground.
The findings help scientists fill gaps in the story of snake evolution, and confirm Dinilysia patagonica as the largest burrowing snake ever known. They also offer clues about a hypothetical ancestral species from which all modern snakes descended, which was likely a burrower.
The study, published in Science Advances, was supported by the Royal Society.
Dr Hongyu Yi, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the research, said: "How snakes lost their legs has long been a mystery to scientists, but it seems that this happened when their ancestors became adept at burrowing. The inner ears of fossils can reveal a remarkable amount of information, and are very useful when the exterior of fossils are too damaged or fragile to examine."
Mark Norell, of the American Museum of Natural History, who took part in the study, said: "This discovery would not have been possible a decade ago - CT scanning has revolutionised how we can study ancient animals. We hope similar studies can shed light on the evolution of more species, including lizards, crocodiles and turtles."
### ||||| EDINBURGH, Scotland, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Comparisons between modern snake skulls and the 90 million-year-old fossil suggest snakes lost their limbs in order to burrow on land.
Using CT scans to study the inner ear cavity of the fossilized Dinilysia patagonica skull, scientists at the University of Edinburgh found the structure of the canal is similar to modern burrowing serpents, but not those that live above ground or in water.
The findings suggest the Dinilysia patagonica, at two meters long, is the largest burrowing snake ever known.
"How snakes lost their legs has long been a mystery to scientists, but it seems that this happened when their ancestors became adept at burrowing," lead researcher Dr. Honguy Yi of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences said in a press release. "The inner ears of fossils can reveal a remarkable amount of information, and are very useful when the exterior of fossils are too damaged or fragile to examine."
The study is published in Science Advances and was sponsored by the Royal Society in Scotland.
Scientists at Yale concluded earlier this year snakes indeed evolved on land, not in water like once assumed. Through analysis of snake genomes, anatomy and fossils, the researchers constructed a family tree of serpents suggesting the most recent common ancestor of today's snakes had lost its forelimbs but still had tiny hind limbs some 128 million years ago.
"It would have first evolved on land, instead of the sea," said the Yale study's co-author Daniel Field of the world's earliest snakes. "Both of those insights resolve longstanding debates on the origin of snakes." ||||| An artist's rendering of an ancient snake, with tiny hind limbs. (Julius T. Csotonyi)
The first snakes originated on land, where they hunted at night in the lush forests of the Early Cretaceous period about 128 million years ago, according to a comprehensive new look at the early ancestors of the notorious reptiles. Oh, and they had tiny little hind legs, complete with itty-bitty ankles and toes.
The new study from a team of Yale paleontologists is "the first comprehensive reconstruction of what the ancestral snake was like," Allison Hsiang, lead author of the study, said in a statement. The study was published on Tuesday in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.
[Museum fossil find pushes snake origins back by 65 million years]
Experts have long debated the details of how, and where, the first snakes lived. The Yale team hopes that their reconstruction, which relies on a plethora of new, more complete fossils recently uncovered, will help to settle some of those questions. Today, there are some 3,400 different snake species roaming the earth.
Daniel Field, a co-author of the study, said the findings settle at least two major "longstanding debates" about the origins of snakes. "Our analyses suggest that the most recent common ancestor of all living snakes would have already lost its forelimbs, but would still have had tiny hind limbs, with complete ankles and toes," he said in a statement. "It would have first evolved on land, instead of in the sea."
These ancient snakes hunted at night and targeted the small vertebrates (including nocturnal mammals) that lived in the forest. They consumed their prey whole just like today's snakes. However, the Yale researchers believe, the first snakes couldn't manage to eat anything bigger than their own heads. And early snakes didn't constrict their prey like some snakes can today. Instead, they grabbed it with tiny sharp teeth.
Both the dinosaurs and the earliest snakes experienced a catastrophic extinction event at the end of the Mesozoic period. But unlike the dinos, the researchers believe snakes flourished. In fact, snakes may have that die-off to thank for their success.
[Did a massive volcanic eruption in India kill off the dinosaurs?]
The ancestors of snakes slithering around today "were able to take advantage of the relatively empty landscape left behind by the dinosaurs," Field and Hsiang wrote in a blog post explaining their findings. Like mammals, the early snakes found themselves living in a world where the dominant animals were suddenly no longer around, leaving tons of ecological niches open for the taking.
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The newest crayfish species looks like a Lisa Frank creation | – "How snakes lost their legs has long been a mystery to scientists," Dr. Hongyu Yi says in a press release from the University of Edinburgh. But that mystery may have finally been solved thanks to a 90 million-year-old skull and advanced CT scan technology. It's been long theorized that the ancestors of modern snakes lost their limbs when they evolved to live in the sea. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh determined that's not quite right when they used a CT scan to create a detailed 3D model of the skull of a Dinilysia patagonica—a close relative of modern snakes—and compared it to those of modern reptiles. What they found was a unique structure in the inner ear that controls balance and hearing and is shared only by burrowing animals. Modern snakes that live in water don't have it. Using that information, researchers determined the ancestors of modern snakes actually lost their limbs in order to hunt and live in burrows, per the press release. "The inner ears of fossils can reveal a remarkable amount of information, and are very useful when the exterior of fossils are too damaged or fragile to examine," Yi says. The study also confirmed the 6.5-foot-long Dinilysia patagonica as the largest burrowing snake ever. The results were published Friday in Science Advances. The study confirms a Yale study from earlier this year that found snakes evolved on land and not in water, UPI reports. That study used genomes, fossils, and more to determine the ancestors of modern snakes lost their front legs approximately 128 million years ago, though they still had tiny hind legs. (Here's how boa constrictors really kill their prey.) |
The French capital’s Canal Saint-Martin is being dredged for the first time in 15 years – and the mysterious objects emerging from the sludge unmask the area’s secret life
Curious crowds had gathered on the arched footbridges that criss-cross Paris’s favourite hipster hang-out, the Canal Saint-Martin, craning to get a look at the oddities poking out of the mysterious brown sludge below.
“Bloody hell, it’s a giant dustbin,” said Marie, a local office-worker, taking photos of the mountains of old wine-bottles, scores of office chairs, bikes, rolled-up carpets, wheelie suitcases and street signs stranded in the muddy pit.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scores of the city’s Vélib hire bikes are among the items littering the bottom of the canal. Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA
Paris’s picturesque Canal Saint-Martin, completed in 1825 but commenced on the orders of Napoleon, who wanted to reinforce the city’s drinking water supply, has in recent years become known as the favoured spot of Paris’s “Bobos” – bourgeois bohemians – wealthy, urban, young leftwingers who love to gather for summer evening aperitifs on the pavements along its banks. The canal is drained and cleaned once every 10–15 years, but when it happens, the bizarre items found at the bottom are one of the most curious and intriguing sights in the city, throwing up the mud-caked mysteries of Paris life.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest An old ghetto blaster awaits its rescue. Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA
On Monday, when workers began to slowly empty 90,000 cubic metres of water into the river Seine in a multimillion-euro cleaning operation that will last three months, they found one gun and police are poised for more. The last time the canal was drained, in 2001, the haul included two 75mm shells from the first world war, safes, gold coins, washing machines, at least one car and 40 tonnes of rubbish. In one earlier cleaning, 56 cars were fished out.
The full inventory is yet to be done – the fish have been evacuated and tractors will be brought in to drag away the vast number of items at the bottom. But the view from the bridges already reveals an extraordinary amount of debris that has been tipped into the canal in the past decade. There are scores of Paris’s Vélib hire bikes, lots of other bikes, myriad chairs of all descriptions, at least one motorbike, supermarket trolleys, shopping caddies, public dustbins, a fire-extinguisher, a children’s doll’s pushchair marooned in the middle of the canal, street signs, umbrellas and wheelie suitcases.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest One of the many scooters found in the canal. Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters
“It’s like some kind of weird submarine treasure,” said Marc, 45, a self-employed local resident. “I just can’t believe the quantity of Vélibs in there. I guess they were stolen and thrown in afterwards. It’s bizarre,” he shrugged.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A vintage camera sits on the bottom, amid hundreds of discarded mussel shells. Photograph: SIPA/Rex/Shutterstock
Paris city hall, apart from warning people to resist trying to climb in to look for lost possessions that might have dropped in in recent years, are using the exercise to warn against littering the canal.
Bernard, 54, a public-sector worker, who had also been on the bridge to witness the last dredging in 2001, was aghast at the mountains of mud-caked wine-bottles and cans. “That’s Paris for you, it’s filthy,” he sighed. “The last time, I don’t remember seeing so much rubbish in it. I despair. The Bobos are using it as a dustbin.” ||||| A woman inspecting the goods in the emptying canal. Photo: AFP
Bikes, scooters, shopping trolleys... and a gun? The mammoth cleaning job on the Canal Saint-Martin is turning up some interesting finds. See them here.
As you may have already noticed, the famed Canal Saint-Martin has almost been emptied.
It's part of a huge cleaning project, the like of which hasn't been seen for 14 years.
Engineers erected a small and unspectacular dam at the top of the canal by Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad on Monday, and around 90,000 cubic metres of water have since been emptied gradually into the River Seine.
If you want to know more about why and how they're doing it, click here.
The draining has already revealed several pieces of intrigue, including a handgun spotted by The Local on Monday afternoon (see pictures below). Police arrived soon after to take the weapon.
Further along the canal, curious Parisians are flocking to the bridges to see for themselves what the canal-bed is hiding.
Here's a closer look at what's turned up so far, including many a Velib' bicycle, several scooters, and thousands of empty wine bottles.
Story continues below… ||||| Paris authorities have begun draining the Canal St-Martin , a waterway that has become the French capital’s hipster epicentre but which critics say has become an urban rubbish dump for uncouth revellers.
Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned the picturesque canal in 1804 to provide the capital with both goods and fresh water.
Today Parisian “bobos”, its cultured and moneyed trendsetters, are prepared to pay €10,000 (£7,300) per square metre for a place overlooking the canal’s famed iron footbridges, tree-lined cobbled towpaths and trendy bars and restaurants.
The drainage operation requires emptying a two kilometre-long stretch of 90,000 cubic metres of water to collect piles of rubbish and renovate its four double locks. It will cost the city €9.5 million and turn the waterway into a dry ditch for three months.
Workers began by allowing most of the water to escape via sluice filters while leaving 50cm to fish out an estimated 4.5 tons of trout, carp and bream hiding in its greenish depths. These are being transferred to another part not under renovation.
Photo: Reuters
Once all the water is drained on Thursday, workers will begin dredging the canal and removing myriad objects thrown in over the past 14 years.
The last time the waterway was drained in 2001, some 40 tons of rubbish was recovered. Among the objects were bicycles, motorbikes, two empty safes, gold coins, a pallet truck, two wheelchairs, a toilet bowl and two 75mm shells from the First World War.
A pistol has already been fished out in the first few hours of this year’s clean-up operation and has been handed to police.
Workers also expect to find quite a few of the city's popular Velib’ hire bikes as well as mountains of beer cans and bottles.
Cutting through northeast Paris, the Canal Saint Martin starts by the Place de la Bastille but its most frequented stretch is just east of the Place de la République.
Its grittier pre-war past was immortalised in Hôtel du Nord, Marcel Carné's 1938 iconic film where artists, gangsters and prostitutes cross paths at the hotel, now a waterfront restaurant. More recently, its quaint footbridges were captured in the feel good Parisian film Amelie.
In the summer months, picnickers with baguettes, beer bottles and wine turn up in their thousands in search of a shady spot to while away a balmy evening without having to pay a fortune for the privilege of sitting in an upmarket Parisian terrace.
But its popularity has led to complaints that it has become a grimy open-air toilet.
Some appalled residents even launched a social media campaign to raise awareness over uncouth behaviour, posting a series of Instagram images depicting vomit-stained quays and smashed or empty beer bottles. In others, the canal’s ducks are hard-pushed to find a way past cigarette butts, crisp packets, beer cans and plastic bags.
Calls for people to take responsibility for the trash they leave behind have largely been ignored.
A few of the residents even tried pinning up notices on their doors beseeching people not to urinate on them. One notice read: "This door is the entrance to our building. Be nice and go and urinate elsewhere."
Célia Blauel, deputy mayor in charge of the environment and canals, called on Parisians to respect the canal once its makeover is complete.
“If everyone mucks in and avoids throwing anything in the water, we might be able to swim in the canal in a few years, as in numerous other European cities,” she told Le Parisien. ||||| For the first time in fourteen years, Paris authorities on Monday began draining the Canal Saint-Martin, a popular waterway that attracts tourists and revellers in the French capital’s trendy northeastern 10th arrondissement.
The complex operation involves emptying the three-mile-long canal of 90,000 cubic metres of water – and moving more than four tonnes of fish to their new home in the River Seine – before workers can repair the locks and collect the inevitable piles of rubbish.
It will cost the city €9.5 million and turn the waterway into a dry ditch for three months.
“We do this, on average, every 12 to 14 years,” said Célia Blauel, who is in charge of the city’s waterways and environmental policies.
“It’s necessary to dredge the canal, repair its walls and renovate the locks,” she told FRANCE 24.
Napoleonic origins
The picturesque waterway was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804 to provide the capital with both goods and fresh water.
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It survived the decline in boat traffic after the two world wars and has since found a new raison d’être as a magnet for tourists, youths and families.
Most of the canal’s nine locks were modernised in 2008 and are now controlled remotely.
Joseph Tomasi, who has worked the locks for 25 years, said he missed the “good old days” when he was solely in charge.
“We knew all the people in the neighbourhood, some would even bring us croissants,” he told FRANCE 24. “We were at the heart of Parisian life.”
Tomasi still had plenty to do on Monday as he opened the first lock upstream, marking the start of the great canal clean-up.
“By the end of the day the canal will be all but empty, leaving a shallow pool of water to collect the fish,” said Julien Gaidot, who is in charge of draining operations.
A team of around a dozen fishermen will have three days to complete their catch, before the canal is fully emptied on Thursday.
Junked bikes, tubs and WWI shells
In all likelihood the workers will be catching a lot more than just fish. The downside of the canal’s increasing popularity is the surge in rubbish thrown into its murky waters.
The last clean-up in 2001 revealed some 40 tonnes of detritus, including bicycles, motorbikes, bathtubs and two 75mm shells dating from World War I.
This year the workers are expecting to find several of the city's popular Velib’ hire bikes as well as a mountain of beer cans and bottles.
“And I’m not even talking about the dead animals!” joked Tomasi, pointing at a huge rat the size of a cat racing across the lock.
Blauel, the environmental official, said the city ultimately planned to make the Villette basin upstream of the canal fit for swimming.
The basin, which connects the Canal Saint-Martin with the larger Canal de l’Ourcq, is currently banned to swimmers – although Parisians regularly brave the ban in the hot summer months.
But Tomasi has no plans to go for a dip. “Down there you can barely see 10 inches in front of you,” he said. | – It has been 15 years since Paris last cleaned the Canal Saint-Martin—long enough for the bottom of the waterway to accumulate thousands of wine and beer bottles, dozens of bikes, and at least one gun. The scenic area along the canal has become what the Telegraph calls the French capital's "hipster epicenter," though residents complain that partyers have turned the canal commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte more than 200 years ago into a garbage dump. Ahead of this week's cleanup, authorities had to drain a major portion of the canal and evacuate what turned out to be tons of fish, reports the Local, which notes that Parisians have been amassing on bridges to see what kind of mud-covered treasures the canal yields. The last cleanup, in 2001, yielded unexploded shells from WWI, gold coins, and safes amid around 40 tons of trash, the Guardian reports. The current cleanup is still underway, but authorities have already found tons more trash, including signs, suitcases, carpets, and, for some reason, a huge number of chairs. Residents say there seems to be more trash than ever this time around, and they blame the increase on the hip young newcomers they have nicknamed "Bobos." "That's Paris for you, it's filthy," a 54-year-old man who was there for the last cleaning tells the Guardian. "The last time, I don't remember seeing so much rubbish in it. I despair. The Bobos are using it as a dustbin." (Speaking of Napoleon ... here's how a neurosurgeon contributed to his undoing.) |
A cellphone belonging to the Colorado mom who vanished after Thanksgiving was used to send a pair of mysterious texts three days after she was last spotted in public with her 1-year-old daughter, cops said Tuesday, as the search for the woman intensified.
Kelsey Berreth was reported missing by her mother 10 days after she was last seen or heard from. Surveillance video shows Berreth buying groceries with her daughter inside a Safeway supermarket in Woodland Park on Thanksgiving Day, and her fiancé, Patrick Frazee, then met her to pick up the couple's daughter.
Authorities on Monday revealed one of the text messages sent after she was last seen indicated Berreth planned to be gone the week after Thanksgiving — but she never returned home.
The last location her cellphone pinged was in Gooding, Idaho, nearly 700 miles away from her home. Berreth’s text to her employer at Doss Aviation — a company that provides flight training for the U.S. military and international armed services — stated she wouldn’t be at work the following week.
“Kelsey’s phone gave a location near Gooding, Idaho on November 25th at 5:13 p.m.,” Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said.
Another text message was sent to Berreth’s fiancé, Patrick Frazee, though it’s unclear what was said and it's not clear Berreth was even the person sending the messages.
SEARCH FOR KELSEY BERRETH, MISSING COLORADO WOMAN, INTENSIFIES AS MOTHER SAYS ‘SOMEONE KNOWS WHERE SHE’S AT’
Berreth’s mother, Cheryl Berreth, put out a public plea Monday for the 29-year-old’s safe return.
“Kelsey we just want you home. Call us if you can. Someone knows where she’s at,” Cheryl Berreth said in a news conference on Monday afternoon. “She’s not the kind that runs off. This is completely out of character.”
Cheryl added: “Kelsey loves her God. She loves her family and friends and she loves her job. She’s reliable, considerate and honest."
The concerned mother said her family has relatives in Idaho, but they said Kelsey never showed up at their homes. Kelsey also never indicated any intention to visit those relatives, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
All of Berreth’s belongings, besides her purse, were still at her Woodland Park home after her disappearance. Her two cars remain in Colorado, puzzling investigators as they search for the 29-year-old.
When asked if Berreth’s fiancé is a suspect, De Young said Frazee is the “father of Kelsey’s daughter and we’re going to leave it at that.”
"This is a missing persons case,” he added.
Anyone with information on Berreth is urged to call the tip line at 719-687-9262. ||||| The family of a Colorado mother who vanished nearly three weeks ago is asking the public to help bring her home. Kelsey Berreth was last seen Thanksgiving Day shopping with her 1-year-old daughter. She was reported missing 10 days later.
When investigators searched her home they found her cars, her clothes, her toothbrush, even cinnamon rolls apparently untouched since Thanksgiving. On Monday, Berreth's mother choked back tears as she appealed for her daughter's safe return.
"Kelsey, we just want you home. Call us if you can, and we won't quit looking," Cheryl Berreth said. "Someone knows where she's at ... She's not the kind that runs off. This is completely out of character."
The 29-year-old was last seen at a Safeway on November 22 where surveillance cameras captured her shopping with her daughter, Kaylee, shortly before Patrick Frazee, Berreth's fiancé and Kaylee's father, picked up the 1-year-old.
On November 25, three days after the Woodland Park, Colorado, resident disappeared, police say her cellphone pinged near Gooding, Idaho, nearly 800 miles away. That same day, two text messages were apparently sent from the device. One told her employer – Doss Aviation, where she was a flight instructor – she would not be showing up to work the following week. The second message was sent to Frazee.
Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said it was Berreth's mother who reported her missing December 2, more than a week after those texts were sent, prompting questions about why her fiancé didn't report her missing.
De Young said he is unaware of any reports of domestic violence involving the couple. Frazee's home has not been searched and police describe him as cooperative. He declined to appear at the press conference Monday.
"We are treating Kelsey's disappearance as a missing person's case at this time. We have not identified anyone as a suspect, and are asking the public for any information that might help us find her," De Young said.
Berreth's family has created a Facebook page called "Missing Mother - Kelsey Berreth." Police said all the planes at the flight school where she worked are accounted for. Frazee, who has been caring for Kaylee, has not responded to our requests for comment. ||||| The last time Kelsey Berreth was seen she was wearing a white shirt, grey sweater and blue pants. It was Thanksgiving day, but before she and her family could dig into the turkey, she was gone.
The 29-year-old flight instructor from Woodland Park, in Teller County, has been missing for more than two weeks. As the search continues, her family grows more worried about her safety and urges anyone with information to contact police.
“She’s not the kind that runs off,” Berreth’s mother, Cheryl, said Monday at a news conference. “This is completely out of character.”
Cheryl Berreth reported her daughter missing just after noon on Dec. 2, Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said at the news conference.
When asked whether investigators considered the disappearance suspicious, De Young said, “I have nothing to indicate other than that it is a missing persons case.”
Kelsey Berreth texted her employer, Doss Aviation in Pueblo, on Nov. 25 to say she would not be at work the following week. She also texted her fiancé, Patrick, that day. He told police that he had not seen Berreth since Thanksgiving, when they exchanged custody of their 1-year-old daughter, De Young said. The girl is with her father, who has cooperated with investigators.
Video footage from cameras at a local Safeway grocery store showed Berreth shopping with her daughter at about noon on Nov. 22. That was the last time she was seen publicly, De Young said.
Berreth’s phone pinged a tower near Gooding, Idaho, at 5:13 p.m. Nov. 25, De Young said. According to information posted on a Facebook page set up to track the search, Berreth has family in Idaho and Washington.
Investigators have searched Berreth’s home and work and have not identified anybody as a suspect in the missing persons case, De Young said.
There was no indication she had flown away in a Doss Aviation aircraft or any record that she and her fiancé were having relationship issues, he said.
Berreth had lived in the 7,600-person mountain town about 80 miles south of Denver since 2016, De Young said.
“Kelsey, we just want you home,” her mother said at the news conference, her voice wavering. “Call us if you can and we won’t quit looking.”
More than 13,000 people are following the Facebook page set up to help spread images and information about Berreth. While the messages have spread far and wide on social media, little new information has yet to lead investigators to the missing woman.
Berreth’s brother held a vigil in Tacoma, Wash., for his missing family member. Friends and family sang “Silent Night” by candlelight as they hoped for Berreth’s safe return, a video of the vigil showed.
Last week, a church in Idaho held a day of prayer and fasting in honor of the family and their difficult situation, a Facebook post said.
Anyone with information about Berreth is asked to call Woodland Park police at 719-687-9262. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
By Tim Stelloh
Authorities searching the Colorado property of a missing woman’s fiancé said Sunday that investigators completed their work without finding Kelsey Berreth.
Berreth, 29, vanished on Thanksgiving in what police in Woodland Park, northwest of Colorado Springs, have described as a suspicious disappearance.
She was last seen walking into a Safeway grocery store in Woodland Park. Three days later, her cell phone pinged to a location in Idaho, 800 miles away.
In a statement Sunday, the Woodland Park Police Department said roughly 75 people were involved in the Saturday search of Patrick Frazee’s property in nearby Florissant.
A backhoe was also used “to be as thorough as possible,” it said.
“We still have not found Kelsey,” the department said. “Investigators continue to conduct interviews and this case remains our number one priority.”
Authorities have not identified Frazee as a person of interest or a suspect in Berreth's disappearance, but Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said last week that Frazee was the last person to see her “face to face.”
“We have yet to have him sit down with...investigators and that’s what we’re asking for,” De Young told reporters, adding that Frazee was “communicating with us through his attorney and that’s about all I can say about that.”
But Frazee’s lawyer, Jeremy Loew, said his client has cooperated with police since Berreth, a flight instructor with Doss Aviation, went missing, turning over his cell phone and photos and providing a DNA sample.
"Mr. Frazee was never asked to voluntarily participate in this search," Loew said in a statement Friday. "We encourage law enforcement to take whatever steps it deems necessary to find Kelsey Berreth and to be able to exclude Patrick Frazee as a possible suspect in this missing person investigation."
The Sunday statement from police said only that authorities had completed their search of Frazee’s property | – Kelsey Berreth wasn't reported missing until Dec. 2, but she was last seen in public on Nov. 22—and police recently revealed that text messages were sent from the 29-year-old Colorado mom's phone three days later. Berreth's last known location was a Safeway in her city of Woodland Park where she was captured on surveillance video shopping with her daughter, Kaylee, at 12:22pm on Thanksgiving Day, CBS News reports. Patrick Frazee, her fiancé and Kaylee's father, met her there to pick up the 1-year-old. Berreth hasn't been seen since, but on Nov. 25 her cellphone pinged almost 700 miles away, near Gooding, Idaho. Two texts were sent: one to Frazee and one telling her employer, Doss Aviation, that she wouldn't be at work the following week. It's not clear whether it was actually Berreth who sent the texts, Fox News reports, but she hasn't been heard from since. Authorities who searched Berreth's apartment found both her cars still there along with all of her belongings except her purse; there were cinnamon rolls on the counter that had apparently remained untouched since Thanksgiving. Berreth, who moved to Woodland Park in 2016, does have relatives in Idaho, which was the last place her cellphone pinged, but her mother says she had no plans to visit them nor did she show up at any of their homes, the Gazette reports. It's not clear why Frazee, who never lived with Berreth, did not report her missing; asked whether he is a suspect, the police chief said, "At this point, he is the father of Kelsey’s daughter and we’re going to leave it at that." He added that Frazee has been cooperative and that police will "look into" the possibility of searching his home; per the Denver Post, he said there is no indication the couple was having problems. It's not clear what the text from Berreth's phone to Frazee said; both Fox and the Gazette describe the texts as "mysterious." A nationwide search is in progress, and Berreth's family has started a Facebook page with updates. |
A suspected U.S. drone killed four alleged al-Qaida members in Yemen on Tuesday, as the U.S. and British embassies evacuated staff amid reports of a threatened attack by al-Qaida that has triggered temporary shutdowns of 19 American diplomatic posts across the Muslim world.
Yemeni officials have suggested al-Qaida threats to multiple potential targets in the Arabian Peninsula country in recent days, including foreign installations and government offices in the capital Sanaa as well as to the strategic Bab al-Mandeb straits at the entrance to the Red Sea to the south.
It is not clear if these reports are the same as the intelligence that led to the embassy shutdowns, reportedly instigated by an intercepted message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and his deputy in Yemen about plans for a major terror attack.
The State Department on Tuesday ordered non-essential personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen to leave the country. The department said in a travel warning that it had ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Yemen "due to the continued potential for terrorist attacks" and said U.S. citizens in Yemen should leave immediately because of an "extremely high" security threat level.
Britain's Foreign Office also said it has evacuated all staff from its embassy in Yemen due to increased security concerns. The Foreign Office said the British Embassy staff were "temporarily withdrawn to the U.K." on Tuesday. It declined to comment further.
Meanwhile, there has been a spike in apparent U.S. drone strikes against al-Qaida leaders. The attack Tuesday was the fourth in two weeks.
Yemen officials say the drone fired a missile at a car carrying four men in the al-Arqeen district of Marib province, setting it on fire and killing all of them. They believed that one of the dead is Saleh Jouti, a senior al-Qaida member.
To the west, in the capital Sanaa, residents awoke to the sound of an aircraft buzzing overhead. Officials said it was an American, and photos posted on Instagram appeared to show a P-3 Orion, a manned aircraft used for surveillance. All officials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to brief the media.
The rare overflight of the capital came shortly before the announcements of the evacuations.
Yemeni authorities released the names of 25 wanted al-Qaida suspects on Monday, saying they were planning terrorist attacks in the capital, Sanaa, and other cities across the country.
A statement from Yemen's Interior Ministry said the suspects were going to target foreign offices and organizations, as well as Yemeni government installations in the impoverished Arab country. It said security was beefed up around embassies, ports, airports, oil installations and power stations.
Officials say potential U.S. targets in Sanaa could include the embassy and other buildings used by the United States to house personnel, as well as a military camp a few kilometers (miles) outside used by U.S. aircraft.
The Yemeni statement said security forces will pay $23,000 to anyone who comes forward with information that leads to the arrests of any of the wanted men. They included allegedly senior figures in al-Qaida's Yemen branch, including Saudi nationals Ibrahim Mohammed el-Rubaish and Ibrahim Hassan el-Assiri.
El-Rubaish was released from Guantanamo in 2006 and is believed to have played significant roles in al-Qaida's expanding offshoot in Yemen. He is a theological adviser to the group and his writings and sermons are prominent in the group's literature.
Military officials meanwhile said the threat may be related to the Bab al-Mandeb, pointing to a visit by Defense Minister Gen. Mohammed Nasser Ahmed on Sunday to Yemeni military forces positioned at the Red Sea entrance some 276 kilometers (171.5 miles) south of Sanaa.
Officials said that the visit came after intelligence that al-Qaida could be targeting foreign or Yemeni interests at the vital Red Sea corridor, which is a main thoroughfare for international shipping but also a crossing point of for smuggled weapons and illegal immigrants between east Africa and Yemen.
Ahmed urged the forces to stay "on alert against any sabotage operations aiming at destabilizing the country," according to officials. They also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Washington considers the al-Qaida branch in Yemen to be among the terror network's most dangerous branches. The United States has also assisted Yemen's military in fighting the militants who, at one point during the country's recent political turmoil, had overrun large sections of land in the south. The group has also carried out bold assassination attacks on Yemeni security forces, killing hundreds over the past two years. ||||| SANAA The Air Force flew some U.S. diplomatic personnel out of Yemen on Tuesday and Washington told nationals to leave the country immediately after warnings of potential attacks that pushed the United States to shut missions across the Middle East.
Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries, is the base for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the most active branches of the network founded by Osama bin Laden, and militants have launched attacks from there against the West.
U.S. sources have told Reuters that intercepted communication between bin Laden's successor as al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, and the Yemen-based wing was one part of the intelligence behind their alert last week.
Britain, which has already advised for more than two years that its citizens in Yemen should "leave now", announced it was temporarily evacuating all its embassy staff.
Yemen is one of a handful of countries where Washington acknowledges targeting militants with strikes by drone aircraft.
In the latest strike on Tuesday, a U.S. drone fired five missiles at a car travelling in the central Maarib province killing all four of its occupants, local tribal leaders said. Yemen's state news agency Saba said four al Qaeda militants were killed in the attack.
The U.S. State Department's announcement urging Americans to leave the country follows a worldwide travel alert on Friday which prompted Washington to shut diplomatic missions across the Middle East and Africa. Some of its European allies have also closed their embassies in Yemen.
"The Department urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to Yemen and those U.S. citizens currently living in Yemen to depart immediately," the statement posted on its website said.
"On August 6, 2013, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Yemen due to the continued potential for terrorist attacks," it added.
Previous U.S. travel warnings to Yemen had also advised citizens not travel to the country, but the language of the latest announcement appeared to reflect a more imminent threat.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said U.S. relations with Yemen remained strong despite the measures taken.
"So this was, again, just to reiterate, a response to an immediate specific threat, but we continue to work with them on a number of issues," Psaki told journalists at a news briefing in Washington.
Britain also said on Tuesday it had withdrawn all staff from its embassy in the capital Sanaa, adding there was "a very high threat of kidnap from armed tribes, criminals and terrorists".
The Netherlands advised its citizens to leave Yemen as a matter of urgency, local news agency ANP reported.
France said it had not changed its previous advisory asking citizens to "be very cautious and to move around as little as possible," Helene Conway-Mouret, junior Minister for French nationals abroad, told BFM TV.
EVACUATION
Restoring stability to Yemen - a country close to major shipping lanes and torn by regional and sectarian separatism and tribal violence as well as the al Qaeda insurgency - has been a priority for the United States.
In a statement issued in Washington, Pentagon spokesman George Little said the U.S. Air Force "transported personnel out of Sanaa, Yemen, as part of a reduction in emergency personnel" in response to a request by the State Department.
He did not specify which types of personnel were involved or where they were taken.
"The U.S. Department of Defense continues to have personnel on the ground in Yemen to support the U.S. State Department and monitor the security situation," the statement said.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu-Bakr al-Qirbi criticized the measures but said they would not affect relations with the United States.
"Unfortunately, these measures, although they are taken to protect their citizens, in reality they serve the goals that the terrorist elements are seeking to achieve," Qirbi told Reuters.
"Yemen had taken these threats seriously and had taken all the necessary measures to protect all the foreign missions in the country," he added.
The country's Supreme Security Committee issued a statement saying it had information al Qaeda was plotting attacks during Eid al-Fitr, this week's Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Ramadan fasting month.
The committee also published a list of 25 senior al Qaeda militants it said were being sought by security forces and offered a bounty of 5 million Yemeni riyals ($23,000) for information leading to their capture.
"Information has become available that terrorist elements of the al Qaeda network were planning to carry out terrorist acts targeting public installations and facilities, especially in a number of Yemeni provinces, in the latter days of the holy month of Ramadan and during the Eid al-Fitr holiday," it said.
STABILITY
Long-serving leader Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down following months of protests against his rule in 2011, part of Arab uprisings that toppled three other heads of state. His replacement, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, met U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington last week.
Yemen is home to 56 of the 86 detainees still being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and security in Yemen is a key element of any deal to send them back so that Obama can fulfill a pledge to close the U.S. prison camp.
Washington's warnings last week concerned possible attacks in the region, based on intelligence including intercepted communication between al Qaeda leaders. Some officials pinpointed Yemen as the main concern.
No figures on the number of Americans in Yemen were immediately available. Washington had consistently cautioned citizens against travelling to Yemen since the protests in early 2011 that eventually forced Saleh to step down.
Al Qaeda's Yemen-based branch AQAP has been behind plots against Western targets and neighboring Saudi Arabia. It claimed responsibility for a failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a Detroit-bound trans-Atlantic airliner with explosives hidden in his underwear on Christmas Day, 2009.
The United States has acknowledged killing Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and al Qaeda preacher, in a drone strike in Yemen in September 2011. The Obama administration's policy allowing the killing of a U.S. citizen has been controversial.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Tabassum Zakaria, Susan Cornwell, Paul Eckert and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Ingrid Melander in Paris, Thomas Escritt in Amsterdam; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Peter Graff and Mike Collett-White) ||||| The Obama administration authorized a series of drone strikes in Yemen over the past 10 days as part of an effort to disrupt an al-Qaeda terrorism plot that has forced the closure of American embassies around the world, U.S. officials said.
The officials said the revived drone campaign — with five strikes in rapid succession — is directly related to intelligence indicating that al-Qaeda’s leader has urged the group’s Yemen affiliate to attack Western targets.
The strikes have ended a period in which U.S. drone activity in the Arabian Peninsula has been relatively rare, with a seven-week stretch with no strikes. The latest strike, in southern Yemen on Wednesday, killed seven alleged militants, the Associated Press reported. A strike on Tuesday reportedly killed four militants in the impoverished nation’s Marib province, a Yemeni security official said.
Although the BBC reported Wednesday that the terror plot had been disrupted,citing statements by Yemeni government officials, U.S. intelligence officials remain skeptical that the danger has passed. One intelligence official said the plot as described by the Yemenis — involving blowing up pipelines and taking over oil and gas facilities — may have been only one component of a broader plan to hit Western targets.
Officials said Tuesday there is no indication that senior al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen have been killed in the drone strikes.
“It’s too early to tell whether we’ve actually disrupted anything,” a senior U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The official described the renewed air assault as part of a coordinated response to intelligence that has alarmed counterterrorism officials but lacks specific details about what al-Qaeda may target or when.
“What the U.S. government is trying to do here is to buy time,” the official added.
The State Department underlined that approach on Tuesday, announcing that it had ordered the evacuation of much of the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and urged all Americans to leave the country immediately.
In a global travel alert, the State Department said that all non-emergency U.S. government personnel would be removed “due to the continued potential for terrorist attacks.” It described an “extremely high” security threat level in Yemen.
Yemen is the home base of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the branch of the terrorist group thought to be the most likely to attack U.S. or Western interests. The U.S. Embassy in Yemen was among 19 that were closed through Saturday, as were embassies in Yemen representing several European nations. The British Embassy said Tuesday that it had removed its staff.
The State Department’s decision drew a sharp rebuke from the Yemeni government, which said the evacuation “serves the interests of the extremists and undermines the exceptional cooperation between Yemen and the international alliance against terrorism.”
“Yemen has taken all necessary precautions to ensure the safety and security of foreign missions in the capital,” the Yemeni Embassy in Washington said in a statement.
State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki took issue with Yemen’s assertion that the U.S. move rewards terrorists and said the decision to remove Americans from the country for safety reasons speaks for itself.
At the same time, jihadists took to Web forums to celebrate the closure of the embassies, with some boasting that doing so was a “nightmare” for the United States, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a nonprofit organization that monitors the forums.
The burst of drone activity provides new insight into the Obama administration’s approach to counterterrorism operations. U.S. officials said the CIA and the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, which operate parallel drone campaigns in Yemen, have refrained from launching missiles for several months in part because of more restrictive targeting guidelines imposed by President Obama this year. Those new rules, however, allow for strikes to resume in response to an elevated threat.
“They have been holding fire,” said a U.S. official with access to information about the al-Qaeda threat and the drone campaign. But intercepted communications between al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is believed to be in Pakistan, and his counterpart in Yemen, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, have raised concern that the network is preparing an assault on Western targets.
“The chatter is coming from Yemen,” the official said. Embassies outside the region were closed not because they were specifically mentioned but because in Yemen and other countries, they would be prominent targets.
A few dozen U.S. Special Operations forces have been stationed in Yemen since last year to train Yemeni counterterrorism forces and to help pinpoint targets for airstrikes against al-Qaeda targets in the country. The U.S. military carries out drone strikes in Yemen from its base in Djibouti, while the CIA flies armed drones from a separate base in Saudi Arabia.
The CIA and the U.S. military have carried out 16 drone strikes in Yemen this year, according to the New America Foundation, which monitors the drone campaign. Last year, a record 54 strikes occurred.
The Pentagon said it will keep an undisclosed number of military personnel in Yemen to support the U.S. Embassy “and monitor the security situation.” U.S. military officials did not specify how many Americans were flown out of Yemen or where they were taken.
Residents in the capital reported seeing and hearing a low-flying aircraft that many believed to be a U.S. drone or some form of surveillance plane.
Raghavan reported from Nairobi. Craig Whitlock at Fort Bragg, N.C., Julie Tate in Washington and Ali Almujahed in Sanaa, Yemen, contributed to this report. | – American concern about the threat of an al-Qaeda attack is only intensifying. The State Department today ordered all non-essential government employees to leave Yemen, and it urged all American citizens there to do the same, reports Reuters. The development comes after news reports revealed that one of the key pieces of intelligence prompting all this concern were intercepted messages between al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri and the leader of Yemen affiliate al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Nasser al-Wuhayshi. Other developments: Drone strike: A suspected American drone strike killed four members of al-Qaeda traveling in a car in central Yemen overnight, reports the BBC. Buzzing the capital: A manned US surveillance plane was spotted flying over the capital of Sanaa, a rarity for the relatively quiet city, reports the AP. Not reopening soon: The US might keep some of its embassies and consulates closed for the entire month of August, reports the Guardian. Red Sea threat? The AP also reports that Yemeni officials are particularly concerned about an attack on the Ba al-Mandeb straits at the entrance to the Red Sea. The straits are vital to international shipping. |
Don't shoot the messenger.
Some DC Comics faithful aren't pleased with the poor reviews Suicide Squad has been receiving ... and they are blaming Rotten Tomatoes, a site that famously aggregates reviews into a Tomatometer score, but does not review films itself.
Currently, Suicide Squad sits at 35 percent on the Tomatometer, giving it a "rotten" score. Neither of Warner Bros.' two previous entries in the DC Extended Universe have been certified "fresh," with 2013's Man of Steel sitting at 56 percent and March's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice pulling the lowest of them all with 27 percent.
The Change.org petition, made by a fan who says he lives in Egypt, argues Rotten Tomatoes should be shut down because its critics "always give The DC Extended Universe movies unjust Bad Reviews," and that this affects people's opinions, even if the films are "great."
As of Tuesday night, more than 5,000 people had signed the petition, but plenty of comments have questioned the validity of trying to shut down Rotten Tomatoes, considering the site does not review films.
The petition organizer shared a statement to address those criticisms on Tuesday, saying that he understands the site will not be shut down. Rather, he hopes the petition will send a message to critics that a lot of people "disagree with their reviews," adding the petition is just "a way to express our anger."
Ironically, Warner Bros. has a history with Rotten Tomatoes. The site — along with DC Entertainment — falls under the Time Warner corporate umbrella. Until earlier this year, Rotten Tomatoes was a property of Warner Bros. Entertainment. It was sold to Fandango in February. ||||| If you look up the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes for the DCEU, prepare yourself. Really, it’s not all that pretty. All of the films rank well under 60% to clinch a ‘rotten rating’ with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice sitting at 27%. Even the much-anticipated Suicide Squad has earned at 34% rating, and frankly, fans are fed up with the site’s reporting. In fact, they’re so fed up that they’ve started a petition to make Rotten Tomatoes shut down.
With just 413, the petition has one goal in mind: get rid of Rotten Tomatoes. Hosted by change.org, the petition’s description sums up its mission succinctly: “We need this site to be shut down because It's Critics always give The DC Extended Universe movies unjust Bad Reviews, Like 1- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016 [,] 2- Suicide Squad 2016 and that Affects people's opinion even if it's a really great movies.”
Should you scroll down to read comments left on the petition, fans have flooded them with their sympathetic views. Many agree the site does offer biased reviews for DC’ films and think it's pathetic that people would try to intentionally make the studio's cinematic universe fail. Other fans reference Marvel Studios and their films’ higher ratings, insisting the difference is due to Hollywood’s double-standards. However, it looks as if some of these fans aren't quite sure of how Rotten Tomatoes work. As the website only aggregates externally published reviews to create its ratings, Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t actually award frivolous reviews on their own. To put it simply, the just do the math based on other outsourced reviews. But, of course, there are fan who’re accusing the site of selectively collecting certain reviews that further their ‘diabolical’ plot to ruin the DCEU. ||||| A24
There’s an elite club of movies on Rotten Tomatoes that have earned a rating of 100 percent on the Tomatometer, indicating universal acclaim from critics. Those chosen few include classics like North by Northwest and All About Eve as well as more modern critical darlings like Man on Wire and Greta Gerwig’s new film, Lady Bird, which joined the ranks of the 100 percenters just a few weeks ago. On Monday, though, Lady Bird set a new Rotten Tomatoes record: With 170 positive reviews (and counting), Lady Bird is now the most-reviewed film to hold a 100 percent rating on the site.
That’s a record previously held by Toy Story 2, which has 163 “Fresh” reviews to its name. To be clear, the new record doesn’t mean that Lady Bird got better reviews than Toy Story 2, necessary—just that it got more reviews, and all of those reviews were on the positive side. (The nature of the Tomatometer means that a critic who adored a movie and a critic who thought it was just pretty good are both ranked as positive reviews.) Slate’s own Dana Stevens praised the film’s cast and Gerwig’s direction, writing that “the little slice of universe she shows us feels deeply and lovingly observed.”
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170 writers all liking the same movie is something to celebrate, especially when there isn't a single naysayer among them. (Even Armond White, the critic who ruined Toy Story 3's perfect score with a bad review in 2010, liked Lady Bird.) Gerwig responded to the good news, telling RT, “that there has been such a warm reception is a dream come true.” | – Batman v Superman has a Tomatometer score of just 27%, and there are people out there who believe that is the result of a Rotten Tomatoes conspiracy, not the result of the superhero flick being what Chris Klimek at NPR calls a "ponderous, smothering, over-pixelated zeppelin crash of a movie." A Change.org petition with 9,000 supporters and counting calls for Rotten Tomatoes to be shut down for giving "unjust reviews" to movies set in the DC Comics universe, including upcoming release Suicide Squad, which has a Tomatometer score of 35%, reports ComicBook.com. The post notes that some petition supporters appear not to understand that Rotten Tomatoes collects reviews instead of creating them, while others are accuse the site of ignoring positive reviews. Accusations of a conspiracy against Warner's DC movies are fairly widespread online, and the attitude isn't limited to comic books or movies, writes Devin Faraci at BirthMoviesDeath. "It feels like we live in an era where anytime something doesn't go our way—whether it be a movie review or a presidential primary—the first reaction is to cry out conspiracy, to find ill will and mysterious forces moving behind the scenes," he writes. "The reality, nine times out of ten, is that other people just didn't like the thing or the candidate you liked." The Hollywood Reporter notes that the petition starter has updated the "Shut Down Rotten Tomatoes" page to say he knows that a petition can't shut down the site, and "it's just a way to express our anger." |
Megan Fox is engaged again, reports the new Us Weekly (on newsstands now).
On-again beau Brian Austin Green popped the question to Fox, 24, June 1.
"Yes, she is engaged," her rep tells Us.
But in all the excitement, the happy couple somehow lost the ring, sources tell Us Weekly.
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"I saw her jumping up and down," a witness tells Us Weekly of the beachside proposal at the Four Seasons Hualalai hotel on the Big Island in Hawaii. "Later, I saw a half dozen staff sifting through the sand."
PHOTOS: Megan, Brian and other couples with huge age differences
Alas, the 2-carat sparkler, which the pair picked out together from Excalibur jewelry store in Beverly Hills, remains MIA.
"Security and maintenance staff spent a couple of hours looking for it," another source tells Us Weekly. "No one found it."
PHOTOS: Stunning celeb engagement bling!
Green, 36, and Fox -- who next stars in Jonah Hex (out June 18) -- began dating in 2004 but called off their previous two-year engagement in February 2009.
Could kids be in the future? (She is helping raise Green's 8-year-old son, Kassius, with his ex, actress Vanessa Marcil.)
"No one believes me when I talk about this, but I'm really maternal," she told W magazine earlier this year. ||||| Surprise! Megan Fox pregnant with her third child
Megan Fox had a surprise in store for her fans this week. The 29-year-old actress debuted a baby bump as she made an appearance at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Monday. Megan showed off her growing tummy in a tight black Versace dress at the event, where she and he co-star Will Arnett promoted their new movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows.
The star is already a mum to two little boys, Noah, three, and Bodhi, two, with her estranged husband Brian Austin Green. Megan filed for divorce from Brian, 42, last August, just a few days after confirming the couple's split after five years of marriage and 11 years together.
CLICK TO VIEW GALLERY
Megan Fox debuted her baby bump at CinemaCon this week
However, the pair have been seen spending time together in recent months, both with their children and on their own.
In 2014, Megan opened up about her experience of marriage, telling Men's Health: "You can't live in a fantasyland and think that everything's going to be perfect all the time. You go through phases when you're just not getting along. You're not communicating well. That’s going to happen and it's going to feel impossible sometimes. It might not even make sense to you sometimes. Arguments are normal."
Megan and Brian Austin Green split last summer
She added: "You have to be patient and sit through that and remember that this is a part of human communication and interaction. Brian is my soul mate. I happen to believe that. He's definitely meant to be the father of my children. That makes it easier for me to work through things, because I always see the spiritual side of things. I look at the end game."
Megan and Brian started dating back in 2004 after meeting on the set of the series Hope and Faith. The actress, who was 18 at the time, said she felt an instant attraction to Brian, who is 13 years older, and the pair soon became an item.
Megan is already a mum to sons Noah and Bodhi
Despite getting engaged in 2006, the pair called off their engagement in 2009 with Brian saying: "Marriage isn't a realistic goal for someone who is 23."
The couple rekindled their relationship, however, and Brian proposed again in June 2010, with the pair getting wed just 24 days later. "I've never been more sure of anything in my life," Brian said after their wedding. "It was the absolute perfect start to what we hope will be an amazing life together." | – Well, that was a quick re-engagement. Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green already got hitched, TMZ reports, in a very small ceremony at the Four Seasons in Hawaii last week. “There were clearly more security people than guests,” a source tells Star. “It seemed like a spur of the moment thing. I don’t think it had been planned long.” It's the first marriage for both; they have been dating since 2004. |
French skipper Francois Gabart reacts after his world record, in the Brest harbor, western France, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. Gabart has broken the record for sailing around the world alone, circumnavigating... (Associated Press)
French skipper Francois Gabart reacts after his world record, in the Brest harbor, western France, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. Gabart has broken the record for sailing around the world alone, circumnavigating the planet in just 42 days and 16 hours. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) (Associated Press)
BREST, France (AP) — French sailor Francois Gabart broken the record Sunday for sailing around the world alone, circumnavigating the planet in just 42 days and 16 hours.
That is more than six days faster than the last record, set by fellow Frenchman Thomas Coville last year.
The organizers, tracking his journey by satellite, tweeted that 34-year-old Gabart reached the finish line near Ouessant island off France's western coast on his trimaran called "Macif" before dawn Sunday.
Dozens of vessels swarmed around the victory vessel, accompanying Gabart as he waved torches.
Supporters waited to fete him in nearby Brest, a historic port city and sailing capital from where he departed Nov. 4 and where residents have been following his travels.
"It's a crazy pleasure ... all this human energy," Gabart said later. "I'm a solitary sailor but this is a pleasure." ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption François Gabart was welcomed back to France by a flotilla of local boats escorting him home
A French sailor has set a new world record for the fastest solo round-the-world navigation, beating the previous time by more than six days.
François Gabart finished his circuit of the globe early on Sunday, in a time of 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds.
He completed the journey non-stop, confined to his trimaran sailing yacht since 4 November.
Gabart broke the record set by his countryman Thomas Coville last year.
The record was held at one stage by British national Dame Ellen MacArthur.
Gabart's new record has yet to be verified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, which will check the ship's GPS data before confirming the result.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Gabart celebrated aboard his trimaran as he reached port in Brest
He crossed the finish line near the western limit of the English Channel at about 01:45 GMT, before turning his ship homeward.
Capturing the drama just ahead of the finish, Gabart said in a video recorded in front of an on-board computer monitor: "The little blue bit is us, the red line is the finish. We should cross it any time now, the computer says 30 seconds."
Then he reported: "I've just crossed the finish line. It's pretty crazy. It's pretty unreal. I'm a bit overwhelmed. Just now I couldn't move I was at such a loss about what to do next. I'm in the dark. There are cargo ships and fishing boats around me. It's a pretty weird atmosphere and at the same time it's pretty extraordinary...
"I'm proud and happy to have made this pretty voyage around the planet."
As he arrived in the town of Brest in France's north-west several hours later, his yacht was escorted into port by a host of local boats in celebration of his accomplishment.
Gabart's success is partly down to good luck with weather, which can dramatically influence sailing speeds.
Image copyright AFP Image caption François Gabart spent 42 days alone on his ship
AFP news agency reports that, while chasing the global speed record, Gabart broke several others for solo racing, including the fastest navigation of the Pacific and the longest distance covered in 24 hours - 1,575km (851 miles).
But his 30m (98ft) boat was also custom-designed for the purpose, using the latest technology, and reached speeds of 35 knots (65km/h) during the journey, it said.
Gabart posted photos and video on social media frequently during his 42 days at sea, sharing his sunset views or his success at fishing with fans.
Well-known sailor Michel Desjoyeaux told the AFP news agency it was not surprising that Gabart had broken Coville's record.
"The one thing we can be sure of is that Francois has a faster boat than Thomas had and if they raced head-to-head then he would be faster," he said. "And he has spent a great deal of time on a multi-hull and is completely unafraid of high speeds." | – If it seems like just last year that a sailor beat the record for sailing around the world solo with a "mind blowing time," well, let us introduce you to the new record-holder: Frenchman Francois Gabart completed the feat on Sunday with a time of 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes, and 35 seconds, reports the BBC. If that doesn't exactly seem blazing, consider that he beat the previous record, set just last year by fellow Frenchman Thomas Coville, by more than six days, reports the AP. Gabart, 34, hit the finish line off France's western coast before dawn Sunday, where he was greeted by dozens of boats and supporters. "It's a crazy pleasure ... all this human energy," Gabart said. "I'm a solitary sailor, but this is a pleasure." |
(TNS) -- A small band of cyber jihadi hunters — including former members of the hacktivist group Anonymous — has been quietly feeding the feds online intel that’s foiled more than 10 terror plots and identified scores of ISIS recruiters and websites, on a mission that’s acquired new urgency in the wake of the Paris attacks.
“We felt enough wasn’t being done, so we wanted to put our skills to good use,” said the executive director of Ghost Security Group, who only goes by the online hacker name DigitaShadow after numerous ISIS death threats. “We’re completely independent. We survive off donations alone.”
Ghost Security Group has provided valuable information since June, according to Michael S. Smith II, co-founder of defense contractor Kronos Advisory and a former adviser to a Congressional terrorism task force.
Smith said he became the de facto middleman between the hackers and the feds after members of Ghost Security Group saw him quoted in a newspaper article about cyber terrorism earlier this year and reached out for help because they weren’t sure their data was getting through the FBI’s tip line.
“When they first reached out, I wasn’t sure if they were just enthusiastic people who wanted to help,” Smith told the Herald. “I was soon pleasantly surprised.”
Ghost Security Group sent him screen shots several weeks later with communications about a plot targeting British and Jewish bystanders at an open-air market in Tunisia popular with tourists. The information was used to disrupt a terror cell and prevent a July 4 terrorist attack, Smith said.
“When you look at what happened with the Tunisia data, they literally saved lives,” said Smith. “That’s what’s remarkable — that a small group of people can have that kind of impact.”
In July, Smith said he showed authorities the group’s information on planned suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia. Smith said it’s unclear how the authorities used or shared that data, but within 24 hours, Saudi forces arrested hundreds of ISIS members in a sweep.
The group has also identified dozens of ISIS recruiters and provided pivotal data showing terrorists moving from Twitter to the Telegram messaging app, according to Smith.
“It’s not that the government is incapable of doing this,” said Smith. “The use of the Internet by the Islamic State is so unprecedented in scope, so prolific that it’s frankly overwhelmed the system. There’s a need for more eyes than are available inside government at this point. I would say they are receptive to help.”
The FBI declined the Herald’s request for comment on the group.
DigitaShadow says he works 16-hour days and his group has taken down more than 100,000 Twitter accounts, nearly 150 websites and 6,000 videos connected to ISIS. They also vet tips on ghostsecuritygroup.com.
Ghost Security Group first tries to alert companies whose servers may unwittingly host terrorist websites.
“If they don’t listen to us within a week, we shut it down by force,” he said. “Anything with intelligence value, we leave intact.”
The group formed in January after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Some members of Ghost Security Group met through Anonymous — although DigitaShadow stresses they have since broken all ties with Anonymous and operate under a set leadership structure.
He said the 14 members, who work from the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, are men and women ages 25 to 50. Some have military backgrounds.
The group also quietly alerts the feds when they go undercover in ISIS forums, Smith said — a distinction that sets it apart from Anonymous, the loosely organized underground group that also stepped up its war against the Islamic State this week.
“Anonymous may go out and do the same thing — create handles and engage with Islamic State members online — and they are going to be misidentified as terrorists,” said Smith. “And the federal authorities are going to waste time and money monitoring Anonymous when they could be spending time on others.”
©2015 the Boston Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. ||||| In July, a threat emerged from an ISIS-associated Twitter account with few followers. The account alluded to an upcoming terror attack at a beach resort in Tunisia. Just a month before, a similar attack left 38 dead.
It may have gone undetected if it weren't for a rogue hacker group called Ghost Security Group.
The group, which is made up of counterintelligence officials and computer specialists, had been monitoring the Twitter account for a month. While the under-the-radar account only had a handful of followers, many of them were high-profile ISIS members.
The hacktivist group immediately looked for intelligence contractors who could relay the info to the authorities. They found terrorist analyst Michael S. Smith II through Twitter. Smith, who works at defense consulting firm Kronos Advisory, serves as a counterterrorism adviser to members of Congress and was responsive to Ghost Security. He became the group's conduit to authorities.
According to Smith, investigators used Ghost Security's info to identify a target site, who they were targeting, and how they would execute the attack. The investigation ended with the arrest of more than a dozen terror suspects, Smith said.
"Without a doubt, this group has saved lives. At least into the dozens," Smith told CNNMoney. "There are people working in the national security community in the United States, Europe, the Middle East ... who will never be credited with that."
FBI Director James Comey has repeatedly said that ISIS' use of social media is unprecedented in terms of how aggressively it engages with people in the West. Its members are essentially overwhelming the system, Smith said, which means there's room for outside support from groups like Global Security.
But in order for these groups to be effective, they have to coordinate with those who "have the mandates ... to find, finish and fix the enemy," said Smith. (The FBI would not comment on Ghost Security's involvement in digitally tracking terrorists.)
Related: Top questions asked on the ISIS help desk
Ghost Security differentiates itself from the vast and often disjointed hacktivist collective Anonymous, which has also declared war on ISIS and claims to have taken down pro-ISIS Twitter accounts. A handful of members were previously part of Anonymous, including one of the leaders, who goes by the name "DigitaShadow." He says Ghost Security is small and more focused.
"We have structure and leadership," he told CNNMoney. "We also have a lot of counterterrorism experience. We have translators, linguists, research analysts on hand to analyze all the data that we receive."
DigitaShadow has taken on the role of executive director and helps organize and assign tasks to the 14 members of Ghost Security who are scattered around the world. He also provides electronic equipment for the group. Ghost Security also works with another group, CtrlSec, which helps monitor the social media of terrorists.
Ghost Security was formed following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris last January. DigitaShadow said it's a full time job for the members, who are scattered around the world. Even though they're just volunteers, they work an average of 16 hours a day.
"We realized for the first time, you could be [attacked] in the streets of Paris and attacked in [your] hometown in America," DigitaShadow said. "Everybody could become a victim. So we wanted to do what we could to help slow them down."
Related: Terrorists hide plans by 'going dark'
DigitaShadow says Ghost Security has taken down 149 Islamic State propaganda sites, 110,000 social media accounts, and over 6,000 propaganda videos since it formed. Following the most recent attacks in Paris, the crew is trying to gather intel on the attackers' digital footprints and identify social media accounts involved in the attacks. (CNN could not independently confirm this information.)
Ghost Security claims to have created automated software that identifies ISIS social media accounts. DigitaShadow says the collective has also infiltrated private ISIS communications, taken over ISIS social media accounts and pulled IP information to help identify and locate ISIS members. Ghost Security is primarily focused on bringing down ISIS, but they also target other Islamic extremists.
According to Smith, the group also identified and traced two brothers in Saudi Arabia who filmed themselves executing someone to demonstrate their support for ISIS. The group was able to take control of the Twitter account that uploaded the execution video and find information about the mobile device, which allowed authorities to locate the killers. (The two brothers were killed before U.S. intelligence acted on the information, according to Smith.)
After connecting with Smith this summer and funneling information to officials, the group changed some of its tactics to operate more lawfully -- it now sees itself as gathering valuable data to send to authorities. While Smith says operations are done legally, there's a fine line.
"Is hacking illegal? Absolutely," DigitaShadow said. "Is fighting ISIS to try to stop threats and stop their propaganda -- would that be considered illegal? It falls into a giant gray area."
The Ghost Security team is working around the clock. They aren't compensated but do receive some bitcoin donations.
Despite struggling to make ends meet, DigitaShadow says they won't stop.
"If we were to stop now, lives would be at risk. It's not a choice, it's more of a way of life for us now." | – Anonymous is making good on its threats to launch a "cyber war" on ISIS, hacking into the group's sites and accounts and warning people about possible attacks. But there's a smaller group that says Anonymous is going about it the wrong way—and claims that its own methods are more effective, the BBC reports. "They [Anonymous] don't have any counterterrorism experience whatsoever," the executive director of Ghost Security Group scoffed to the BBC in a phone interview. GSG—made up of volunteer counterterrorism and computer experts, some of whom used to belong to Anonymous and who say they put in an average of 16 hours a day, per CNNMoney—operates mainly by checking out purported ISIS member social-media accounts and snooping on message boards, then sharing info it gathers with law enforcement, the BBC notes. That methodology contrasts with Anonymous' preferred method of launching distributed denial-of-service attacks that take jihadi websites offline. "I don't think DDoS attacks do a huge amount of damage to Islamic State," the GSG director notes. He tells the Boston Herald that "if they don't listen to us within a week, we shut ... down [suspected terror websites] by force. [But] anything with intelligence value, we leave intact." The group says it helped stop a follow-up attack to this summer's Tunisian beach massacre by monitoring Twitter, per the BBC. The security firm CEO who's the middleman between GSG and authorities tells the broadcaster that "these people have saved lives." An Anonymous member offered a virtual eye-roll at the GSG being in bed with the law, telling the BBC its own shutdown method "stops [ISIS] from recruiting young kids that have no place to go or people [who] are sick in the head." But the GSG director says, "We can't do anything with that data unless we work with the US government. They have the guns and the boots on the ground [to] disrupt terrorist operations." (ISIS has a menacing message for Anonymous.) |
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The mummified body of a German adventurer has been discovered on his abandoned yacht - which silently drifted around the world for years.
Manfred Fritz Bajorat, 59, was found by two fishermen at the weekend off the coast of the Philippines.
His body was discovered near the radio telephone on the 40ft yacht called Sayo, as if he was trying one last desperate mayday call.
The tragic sailor has also penned a haunting final message to his wife Claudia, who died from cancer in 2010.
The note read: "Thirty years we're been together on the same path. Then the power of the demons was stronger than the will to live.
"You're gone. May your soul find its peace. Your Manfred."
(Photo: Barobo Police handout)
(Photo: Facebook / Barobo Police Station)
It is not clear how long he had been dead and for how many years his yacht had been drifting, but no reported sightings of him have been mentioned since 2009.
Inside the cabin were found photo albums, clothes and tins of food strewn all over the interior.
He was floating nearly 40 miles from the coast of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean when the fishermen spotted the drifting vessel and boarded it.
Read more: Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun "spontaneously combusted"
The mast was broken and much of the cabin was underwater, but what killed the skipper is unclear.
Dry ocean winds, hot temperatures and the salty air helped preserve his body. He was identified by paperwork found on the vessel.
(Photo: EPA)
(Photo: Facebook / Barobo Police Station)
It is unclear how long he has been dead. Police are trying to retrace his last voyages and find the last people to speak with him.
He broke up with his wife in 2008, who had been on his travels with him, and she later died from cancer.
In 2009 in Mallorca he met another world sailer called Dieter who told Germany's BILD newspaper: "He was a very experienced sailor. I don't believe he would have sailed into a storm.
"I believe the mast broke after Manfred was already dead."
(Photo: EPA)
(Photo: Facebook / Barobo Police Station)
His body was taken for an autopsy in Butuan City, the yacht was towed for a police inspection into the port of Barobo.
Police spokeswoman Goldie Lou Siega in the Philippines said; "We have no evidence of a second person aboard and no weapon was found on the yacht."
Dr Mark Benecke, a forensic criminologist in the city of Cologne, told BILD: "The way he is sitting seems to indicate that death was unexpected, perhaps from a heart attack."
The German embassy in Manila is working with local officials to trace his family in Germany.
It is believed he has a daughter called Nina who works as the captain of a freight vessel. ||||| WARNING: Graphic images.
THE mummified body of a German adventurer has been discovered inside an abandoned yacht.
The grisly discovery came after two fishermen off the coast of the Philippines alerted authorities to a drifting vessel.
The body, found slumped near the boat’s radio telephone, has been identified as 59-year-old Manfred Fritz Bajorat.
Inspector Mark Navales said the cause of death was unclear, but there were no signs of foul play.
“It is still a mystery to us,” said Navales, adding it looked like Bajorat “was sleeping”.
It is yet unclear how long Bajorat had been missing, but sightings of him have not been reported since 2009.
It was unclear how long Bajorat had been dead on the yacht, which was found on Thursday by fishermen in the Philippine Sea about 100 kilometres from Barabo.
Items inside the yacht were scattered, according to Navales, who said the man’s wallet was not found but that the yacht’s radio, GPS and other valuable items were still there.
Local police spokeswoman Goldie Lou Siega in the Philippines said: “We have no evidence of a second person aboard and no weapon was found on the yacht.”
Decomposing body of German found inside yacht 0:33 The decomposing body of a German national was found inside a yacht in Surigao del Sur, Philippines. Courtesy: YouTube/ABS-CBN News.
Dr Mark Benecke, a forensic criminologist in the German city of Cologne, told BILD newspaper: “The way he is sitting seems to indicate that death was unexpected, perhaps from a heart attack.”
Officials said dry ocean winds and the salty air helped to preserve his body.
As authorities tried to put together the circumstances of Bajorat’s death, details of his private life have started to emerge, according to The Sun.
He began his travels with his wife in 2008, but the couple subsequently split up. She later died from cancer.
FOUND DEAD PERSON-About 4:00 in the afternoon of February 26, 2016, personnel of Barobo PS received information from... Posted by Barobo Police Station on Friday, February 26, 2016
In 2009 Bajorat is said to have met another sailor, identified only as Dieter, who told BILD that Bajorat was an “experienced sailor.”
“I don’t believe he would have sailed into a storm,” he said. “I believe the mast broke after Manfred was already dead.”
The German embassy in the Philippine capital, Manila, has been notified and is now working on locating Bajorat’s family.
He is believed to have a daughter who works as the captain of a freight vessel.
Here are photos that were taken when Bajorat's boat was found. Photos of the interior of his boat as well as a photo album he had on board. Posted by GHOST of Florida Paranormal Society on Monday, February 29, 2016
— With The Sun. ||||| Christopher Rivas and his colleagues were about to turn their fishing boat for home when they noticed the half-submerged hull of the yacht Sajo sitting in the water about 60 miles off the coast of the southern Philippines.
It had been more than a year since anyone had heard from the 40ft Sajo’s 59-year-old German skipper, Manfred Fritz Bajorat. It did not take long for Mr Rivas to discover why as he scrambled on board to help.
Warning: graphic image below
The Filipino fisherman found Mr Bajorat’s body sat next to the vessel’s bank of radio transmitters. Such had been the dry, salty conditions since the unexplained death of the German sailor that his corpse had been mummified in its final position, slumped over a table used for charts with the transmitter handset just inches away.
Police in the port of Barobo, about 700 miles south of Manila, where Mr Rivas towed the Sajo, said that a post-mortem examination had found no evidence of foul play and it was believed Mr Bajorat had died of natural causes, possibly from a heart attack.
His identity had been established using documentation, including dozens of photographs, found on board the yacht, which it is believed had been drifting for months in the Pacific Ocean before Mr Rivas and his fellow fishermen came upon the wreck.
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A Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, was the most powerful storm ever to hit the Florida Panhandle Getty 25/50 9 October 2018 The Darul Muttaqien Mosque was the heart of the community for many in Palu. A lot of the victims were inside their homes or at the mosque when the quake struck. Magareb prayer for many, was their last. Paddy Dowling travelled with UK based charity Muslim Aid to the disaster areas of North Sulawesi to witness the scale of Indonesia’s earthquake & tsunami. They are the only British NGO delivering aid out in Palu through local partners Paddy Dowling 26/50 8 October 2018 People take part in a candle-light vigil in memory of Bulgarian TV journalist Viktoria Marinova in Ruse Reuters 27/50 7 October 2018 Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, presidential candidate with the Social Liberal Party, celebrate in front of his house during the general elections in Rio. The far-right congressman, who waxes nostalgically about the dictatorship, won the vote but not an outright victory. The second-round-run-off will be between Bolsoanro and the leftist Workers' party Fernando Haddad AP 28/50 6 October 2018 Demonstrators hold a banner that reads "freedom of the press, not allowed to be trampled" and "shame on the governments vindictive move" past a symbolic 'political red line' during a protest after Hong Kong immigration authorities declined a visa renewal for senior Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet, outside the immigration department building in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's decision to effectively blacklist a senior Financial Times journalist required an "urgent explanation", the UK said AFP/Getty 29/50 5 October 2018 Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad announced as the winners of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. The pair were awarded the honour “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.” AFP/Getty/Reuters 30/50 4 October 2018 Dutch security services expel Russian spies over plot targeting chemical weapons watchdog. This picture shows the four GRU officers who entered the Netherlands at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on April 10, travelling on official Russian passports. On April 13 they parked a car carrying specialist hacking equipment outside the headquarters of the OPCW in The Hague. At that point the Dutch counter-terrorism officers intervened to disrupt the operation and the four GRU officers were ordered to leave the country PA 31/50 3 October 2018 Quake survivors make their way past a washed out passenger ferry in Wani, Indonesia's Central Sulawesi, after an earthquake and tsunami hit the area on September 28. Nearly 1,400 people are now known to have died as UN officials warned the "needs remain vast" for both desperate survivors and rescue teams still searching for victims AFP/Getty 32/50 2 October 2018 US first lady Melania Trump holds a baby during a visit to a hospital in Accra, Ghana. The first lady is visiting Africa on her first big solo international trip, aiming to make child well-being the focus of a five-day, four-country tour Reuters 33/50 1 October 2018 Indian school children dressed like Mahatma Gandhi perform yoga during a event at a school in Chennai ahead of his birth anniversary. 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Erdogan's official state visit has been met with protests EPA 37/50 27 September 2018 Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters AP 38/50 26 September 2018 Members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) search for victims after a building collapsed in New Delhi killing five people, the latest incident highlighting India's poor urban planning and construction AFP/Getty 39/50 25 September 2018 US golfer Tiger Woods tees off during a practice session ahead of the 42nd Ryder Cup at Le Golf National Course at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, south-west of Paris AFP/Getty 40/50 24 September 2018 President Donald Trump and US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, talk with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres during the General Assembly at UN Headquarters AP 41/50 23 September 2018 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has claimed that his country is "ready to confront America", following an attack on a military parade in Ahvaz in which 25 people were killed. The attack has been blamed by Iranian government and military officials on gulf states that are allied with the US AP 42/50 22 September 2018 Pakistan has invited Saudi Arabia to become a partner in the Beijing funded Belt and Road scheme that will improve and expand Pakistan's infrastructure. The invite comes at the end of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's two day trip to the Middle Eastern country, where he met with Saudi King Salman EPA 43/50 21 September 2018 A boat has capsized killing at 136 people in Lake Victoria, Tanzania. Rescue operations are ongoing AFP/Getty 44/50 20 September 2018 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe celebrates after the ruling liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on September 20, 2018. - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won re-election as leader of his ruling party on September 20, setting him on course to become Japan's longest-serving premier and realise his dream of reforming the constitution. AFP/Getty 45/50 19 September 2018 Los Angeles has moved to ban the sale of fur within its city limits. Speaking at a news conference today, councillor Bob Blumenfield said “this is something that is not just a good legislative win, it’s a moral win”. LA will be the biggest city in the US to ban the sale of fur, as it follows San Francisco, Berkley and others AP 46/50 18 September 2018 South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wave during a car parade in Pyongyang, North Korea, Reuters 47/50 17 September 2018 Australia has launched a nationwide investigation into needles being hidden in strawberries. Sewing needles have reportedly been found in strawberries in all 6 Australian states and the market is suffering from the resultant fear EPA 48/50 16 September 2018 Typhoon Mangkhut has made landfall in China, bringing winds of 100mph to coastal areas and storm surges of 10 feet in Hong Kong. Pictured here are the smashed windows of an office tower in Hong Kong. Reuters 49/50 15 September 2018 German Police have begun evicting activists from the Hambacher Forest where a protest to protect the remaining section of the ancient forest has been ongoing for the past 6 years. Dozens of activists have been living in treehouses, but are now being forced out after tensions rose between them and energy company RWE, which plans to expand its coal mine further into the remaining woodland AFP/Getty 50/50 14 September 2018 Speaking in Malmo today, the Dalai Lama stated "I think Europe belongs to Europeans" and suggested that refugees should focus on returning home and developing their home countries Reuters
The discovery signifies a sobering end to what had started as a life of adventure for Mr Bajorat and his wife, Claudia. The couple had begun sailing around the globe about 20 years ago, but their marriage did not survive their travels and they broke up in 2008.
Two years later, Claudia died from cancer while on the French island of Martinique. Mr Bajorat posted a tribute online to his former wife, saying: “Thirty years we’ve been together on the same path. Then the power of the demons was stronger than the will to live.”
The mariner, from the Ruhr region of Germany, continued his voyages alone, sailing between Europe and the Pacific.
Reports in German media said that Mr Bajorat had taken to the waves to avoid central Europe’s bitter winters, which he disliked.
Photographs found on board the £130,000 yacht showed carefree family moments – a sea-water damaged picture of picnic with friends or relatives, a Polaroid of a visit to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and an image of children playing in the snow.
Two other documents chronicled a journey taken by the Bajorats on board a large container ship with certificates recording their crossing of the Equator, naming Manfred as “Tiger Shark” and Claudia as “Angel Fish”.
Mr Bajorat, who is believed to leave behind a daughter who works as the captain of a freight vessel, is not thought to have been in contact with anyone since he sent a birthday message to a friend on Facebook a year ago.
Police are investigating whether Mr Bajorat may have been trying to send a mayday message at the time that he died.
A police spokesman said: “We have no evidence of a second person aboard and no weapon was found on the yacht.” ||||| ZAMBOANGA CITY—When the Inquirer spoke with kidnapped 70-year-old German national Juergen Kantner on Sunday afternoon, he repeatedly said the name “Sabine Merz” and the word “pirates.”
On Monday, it was learned that Sabine Merz was his wife who, according to the Abu Sayyaf, was killed on Saturday when she tried to shoot members of the rebel group.
“Our men shot back and killed her,” Muamar Askali alias Abu Ramie, the self-proclaimed spokesperson of the Abu Sayyaf, told the Inquirer.
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Ramie said they chanced upon the couple onboard their yacht cruising the water of Tanjong Luuk Pisuk in Sabah.
Tawi-Tawi shooting
The shooting happened somewhere in Tawi-Tawi, according Askali.
Villagers reported finding a dead woman lying beside a shotgun on board a light blue yacht with the German flag and marked “Rockall” off Laparan Island in Sulu, Tan said.
The Task Force Tawi-Tawi recovered the light blue yacht in Laparan Island in the Pangutaran town of Tawi-Tawi on Sunday.
Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., spokesperson of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said the body of a female foreigner, believed to be in her 50s, was found inside the yacht.
“The body sustained gunshot wounds and some bruises. A shotgun was also recovered beside the woman’s body,” Tan said.
Tan said the passports of Kantner and Merz were found on the Rockall. He said the photo in Merz’s passport appeared to match the body of the dead woman aboard, although her identity still needed to be confirmed.
“The body was brought to Zamboanga for autopsy,” Tan said.
“What’s alarming is that the body was naked and had several contusions in the face and was possibly raped,” he said.
He said the military had listened to an audio recording of a known Abu Sayyaf leader claiming responsibility for the raid on the yacht, and the abducted German man also spoke on the phone call.
It was not the first time the Kantners were held captive.
An Agence France-Presse report said they were also held hostage by Somali pirates in June 2008, and were freed 52 days later.
AFP interviewed Kantner and his wife, Sabine Merz, in 2009 about their ordeal when they returned to Somalia to retrieve their boat.
Despite being subjected to a mock execution during his ordeal, Kantner said the threat of kidnapping would never stop him from sailing. —WITH REPORTS FROM JULIE ALIPALA, AFP AND AP | – Fishermen spotted a yacht with a broken mast drifting near the Philippines on Feb. 26 and discovered the owner inside, but the story doesn't have a happy ending. Manfred Fritz Bajorat, 59, was slumped beside the ship's radio telephone, long dead and apparently mummified by the ocean's hot temperatures and salty, dry winds, the Mirror reports. What police found pointed to a life of adventure and a marriage that collapsed along the way. What isn't clear is how or when Bajorat died: "It is still a mystery to us," a detective on Mindanao Island tells the Telegraph. Police say there's no evidence of another person on board and no weapon was in the partly flooded cabin. Neither was Bajorat's wallet, but expensive items like a GPS system were still on board the $180,000 yacht, Australia's News Network reports. A doctor suggests he might have died suddenly of a heart attack. Documentation and recovered photos helped authorities identify Bajorat, a German adventurer who began sailing the world with his wife, Claudia, 20 years ago, the Independent reports. Photos of them picnicking and visiting the Arc de Triomphe in Paris indicate a carefree life, but they split in 2008 and Claudia died of cancer two years later. "Thirty years we've been together on the same path," wrote Bajorat in an online tribute. "Then the power of the demons was stronger than the will to live." Bajorat continued sailing between the Pacific and Europe, and his final position indicates he might have been seeking help by radio. "He was a very experienced sailor," says a fellow seaman. "I don't believe he would have sailed into a storm. I believe the mast broke after Manfred was already dead." An autopsy is pending. (Japanese cab drivers reported "ghost passengers" after the tsunami.) |
HOUSTON -
A man who killed a constable serving an eviction notice, a civilian and wounded two others was described by relatives Monday as a "ticking time bomb."
Police named 35-year-old Thomas Caffall as the man who shot and killed a constable, another man and wounded several others during a 30 minute gun battle.
Caffall opened fire in the 200 block of Fidelity in College Station shortly before 12:30 p.m., just as Brazos County Precinct 1 Constable Brian Bachmann was serving an eviction notice.
After Bachmann was shot, College Station police officers responded to the scene and one of them was shot. Two other officers were hurt while responding to the scene, but they were not shot, police said.
Two civilians were also shot. One of them, 43-year-old Chris Northcliff, was killed. A 55-year-old woman, who sources identified as Barbara Holdsworth, was in critical condition after undergoing surgery.
KPRC Local 2 investigative reporter Robert Arnold tracked down Caffall's family on Monday afternoon, and Richard Weaver, his stepfather, said he was not shocked that Caffall was involved.
"We are devastated for the families that this SOB killed," said Weaver. "He was a ticking time bomb."
Arnold asked Weaver if he had any indication that something like this was coming.
"He was crazy as hell," Weaver said. "At one point, we were afraid that he was going to come up here and do something to his mother and me."
"We were hoping he'd kill himself before doing something like this," said Weaver. "We are just devastated for the families this SOB killed."
Weaver could not elaborate on exactly what pushed Caffall to this point, but did say he was aware of the eviction. Weaver said Caffall had not spoken to his mother in several months.
Weaver said Caffall quit his job about nine months ago and proclaimed he would never work for anybody again.
On Caffall's Facebook page there were several photos of rifles, but no direct mention that something like Monday's event was brewing in his life.
Caffall was divorced.
Caffall was killed during the shootout with College Station police. ||||| The 24-year-old man who killed two people before turning the gun on himself at the Jacksonville Landing Sunday had a history of being emotionally distant, according to the gamers who played him. Court records show that he had previously been hospitalized in psychiatric facilities.
His parents filed for divorce 13 years ago, and during their long-running custody battle, his dad and mom fought over the state of his mental health, according to the Associated Press and the Baltimore Sun. His dad claimed Katz's mom was exaggerating symptoms of mental illness.
Twice as a teenager, he was hospitalized at mental health hospitals, according to the two news organizations.
On Sunday, he fired a semi-automatic handgun at 12 people, two who died and 10 more were treated for their gunshot wounds, according to Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams.
Katz had two guns on him at the time of the shooting, a .45-caliber handgun and a 9-mm handgun, according to Williams. One of the guns had an after-market laser sight on it. In a livestreamed video taken just before and during the shooting, one of the players appears to have a red dot show up on his body.
Katz walked past other patrons at the Chicago Pizza restaurant in the Jacksonville Landing, Williams said, before targeting gamers. Williams said there is "no indication that this was something he planned prior to Sunday."
The single-elimination tournament was a qualifier to go to the Madden Classic in Las Vegas. Jacksonville's event was one of four Madden Classic regionals, and it attracted gamers from across the country. According to the tournament's online bracket, Katz lost in the first of six rounds. Online, gamers have said that Katz opened fire.
Katz previously attended the University of Maryland but was not attending this semester, according to the university's president.
He appears to have been active on Reddit, talking about the Baltimore Ravens and building computers, as well as asking people to help him with homework.
The Baltimore Sun quoted a former teaching assistant a the university who said he "did not open up the same ways as the others did."
On Twitter and Twitch, a video-streaming site for eSports, fellow gamers said he had often been emotionally disconnected. One called him a "scumbag" last year. Another said yesterday that "He was weird but he never mentioned anything about hurting any1 he’d just ban them and stop talking to him he was definitely weird tho."
"We’ve always known he was a little off and stuff just because he wasn’t social at all," Shay Kivlen told the Associated Press. Kivlen was at the tournament.
In a video from a previous tournament, an announcer describes Katz as emotionless. "David Katz keeps to himself," the man says. "He's a man of business. He's not here for the experience or to go out or this, that or the third. He's not here to make friends."
In February of last year, Katz surprised gamers when he won the Madden 17 Club Series. On the website for EA Sports, the maker of the Madden video game, a post said that "In what some are calling the most exciting moment in all the 2017 NFL Club Series Championships, David 'Bread' Katz won with a walk-off victory by completing an unbelievable pass as time expired to be crowned Buffalo Bills Champion." In an interview after Katz' victory, he said he was underrated and that "I think personally I'm one of the better players."
Eli Clayton, one of the victims in Jacksonville, also competed that year and was the Jaguars' champion.
Katz used the name "RavensChamp" (sometimes with different spellings) and variations of the word "Bread" in competitions. In a 2015 tournament he appears to have lost in a championship game to Clayton, one of Sunday's victims, according to an online bracket.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said that Katz's mother and father have been helping the investigation.
>> Multiple people dead, including suspect, in mass shooting at Jacksonville Landing
>> Gamers mourn Landing victims: ‘Great people and did not deserve this’
>> Mass shooting at Jacksonville Landing captured on livestream video
>> Jacksonville Landing shooting happened at Madden Classic preliminary
>> Jacksonville Landing has seen fatal violence before
>> Mark Woods: From this heartbreak must come action on gun violence
>> Photos: Scenes from mass shooting aftermath at Jacksonville Landing | – The gunman who killed two people near the Texas A&M campus before he was fatally shot by police yesterday was a gun fanatic who was battling mental illness. Thomas Caffall's stepdad called the gunman a "ticking time bomb." He was "crazy as hell," Richard Weaver told local TV station KPRC. Caffall, whose deadly rampage was triggered as he was about to be evicted from his College Park home, posted several photos of sophisticated weapons on his Facebook page. "It's not an AK-47. It's a Czech vz. 58. Just picked it up today. Can't wait to try it out on the range," he wrote in June. In another post spotted by Fox 19, he notes: "I just got a new toy. It's a Russian Mosin Nagant that looks like it might not have been fired in 80 years, but was extremely well preserved. I'll be at the gun range as much as I can." Caffall, 35, also lists snipers as "inspirational people," and notes: “I am pulling a cross between Forrest Gump and Jack Kerouac (without the drugs). I'm on the road, permanently.” Caffall was suffering from increasingly serious mental issues, his mother, Linda Weaver, told the Huffington Post. "The minute I saw the TV I knew it was him," said Weaver. "I've been that worried about him." Weaver said she had been estranged from her son for months. "We are just devastated," she said. "He's been very deeply troubled. If you are going to commit suicide, why take all these other people with you?" |
Jennifer Hudson and fiancé David Otunga have ended their relationship after 10 years.
“They have been in the process of ending their relationship for a number of months,” Hudson’s rep tells PEOPLE exclusively in a statement.
“Today, Jennifer requested and received a protective order against her ex-fiancé. Jennifer’s actions are solely taken in the best interest of their son,” the statement concluded.
Hudson, 36, and Otunga, 37, are parents to 8-year-old David Daniel Otunga Jr.
Otunga’s attorney, Tracy M. Rizzo, released a statement to PEOPLE on behalf of the former pro wrestler following the split news.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
“Mr. Otunga has never abused or harassed Ms. Hudson or their son, and it is unfortunate, especially in today’s climate, that she would feel the need to make these false allegations against him. Mr. Otunga looks forward to his day in court and in being awarded the residential care of the parties’ only child,” a part of the statement read.
Former pro wrestler Otunga proposed to Hudson in September 2008 after less than a year of dating. The couple welcomed their only child nearly a year later in August 2009.
About a month after becoming engaged, Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, and her brother, Jason Hudson, were found fatally shot in a Chicago home. Her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, was found dead in the backseat of a car. Hudson’s former brother-in-law William Balfour was convicted of the murders in 2012. ||||| Jennifer Hudson may not have her fairytale ending with David Otunga after all.
The couple have broken up and ended their relationship after 10 years, E! News confirms.
"[They] have been in the process of ending their relationship for a number of months," Jennifer's rep tells E! News. "Today, Jennifer requested and received a protective order against her ex-fiancé. Jennifer's actions are solely taken in the best interest of their son. Please respect her privacy at this time."
David's attorney would also release a separate statement to E! News.
"David Otunga has been trying to negotiate the terms of an amicable parenting agreement with Ms. Hudson for several weeks now. However, when it became apparent to Ms. Hudson that Mr. Otunga would be the parent granted residential care of the child, as a result of Mr. Otunga being the child's primary caregiver while Ms. Hudson pursues her career all over the world, Ms. Hudson decided to file a meritless Petition for Order of Protection in an effort to gain an unfair advantage in the custody dispute," Tracy Rizzo explained. "As a result of Mr. Otunga's career in the WWE, Ms. Hudson felt that she could give an award winning performance in court to portray herself as the victim. Mr. Otunga has never abused or harassed Ms. Hudson or their son, and it is unfortunate, especially in today's climate, that she would feel the need to make these false allegations against him. Mr. Otunga looks forward to his day in court and in being awarded the residential care of the parties' only child." ||||| Jennifer Hudson Cops Throw David Otunga out of Family Home After She Gets Order of Protection
Jennifer Hudson Gets Order of Protection Claiming David Otunga is Threat to Her and Child
EXCLUSIVE
Jennifer Hudson had the cops come to her Chicago-area home Thursday night and throw baby daddy David Otunga out ... TMZ has learned.
Sources familiar with the case tell TMZ, Hudson went to court Thursday without telling Otunga and got an order of protection, claiming he is a risk to both her and their 8-year-old son, David Jr.
The police came, allowed Otunga to pack a bag and ordered him out.
Sources tell TMZ the catalyst for the order of protection is turf and custody war. Our sources say the couple has been broken up for several months ... after David allegedly found out Hudson was dating someone else.
David stayed in the family home -- which is owned by Jennifer -- partly because he's been the primary caregiver since she's on the road a lot. We're told the couple has been negotiating a custody arrangement for the last few weeks, but the negotiations broke down after both David and Jennifer dug in ... each wanting primary physical custody of their son.
Our sources say Jennifer demanded that David leave the home, and when it became apparent he wasn't going to comply she went to court for the order of protection. She's also filed a petition for full physical custody. | – Jennifer Hudson has split from the fiance she once said "saved her life" after her mother, brother, and nephew were murdered—and she also got a protective order against him. Hudson, 36, and former pro wrestler David Otunga, 37, have been together a decade, got engaged in 2008, and had a son together in 2009. "They have been in the process of ending their relationship for a number of months," Hudson's rep tells People. "Today, Jennifer requested and received a protective order against her ex-fiancé. Jennifer’s actions are solely taken in the best interest of their son." Per TMZ, police ordered Otunga to leave the couple's Chicago-area home, which Hudson owns, Thursday night. But a rep for Otunga says the couple had been attempting to work out a custody arrangement for weeks, and only when it became apparent that Otunga would be granted residential care of their son because he is "the child’s primary caregiver while Ms. Hudson pursues her career all over the world," per a statement given to E!, did Hudson file for a protective order. "Mr. Otunga has never abused or harassed Ms. Hudson or their son, and it is unfortunate, especially in today’s climate, that she would feel the need to make these false allegations against him," the statement continues. As for what was behind the initial split, TMZ's sources say Hudson started dating someone else. |
When he called Murray back a couple of minutes later, the doctor said Jackson had a "bad reaction" and asked him to go to the house, Williams testified.
"Call me right away, please, call me right away, thank you," Murray said in the recording played during the testimony of the assistant, Michael Amir Williams.
And after Jackson stopped breathing, Murray told the singer's personal assistant Jackson had “a bad reaction” and never asked for 911 to be called, the assistant told jurors.
Before the singer’s death, Murray assured concert promoters that Jackson was in perfect health when, in fact, he was dependent on nightly doses of a dangerous surgical anesthetic to sleep, witnesses said in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday.
Michael Jackson’s personal physician waged a coverup regarding the singer’s health in the weeks leading up to, and the minutes following, his death, according to testimony on the second day of Dr. Conrad Murray's manslaughter trial.
"At no time during that call he asked you to call 911?" Deputy Dist. Atty. David Walgren asked.
"No sir," he responded.
Williams testified that he called security personnel at the house and asked them to see what was going on.
By the time Williams arrived at the Holmby Hills mansion from his downtown L.A. apartment, Jackson was being brought out on a gurney, he said.
Murray seemed frantic, he recalled.
"I knew it was serious," Williams said.
After Jackson was pronounced dead, Murray asked Williams to drive him from the hospital back to the singer's mansion to retrieve something, Williams testified.
Murray said he needed to get "some cream that Michael wouldn't want the world to know about," Williams said.
Williams said he found the request so odd that he lied to the doctor, saying police had taken his car keys, and told a security guard of his plans to deceive Murray to avoid taking him back.
Williams then called security personnel at the home and told them not to allow anyone into the home, "just for the simple fact that Dr. Murray asked to go back," Williams testified.
Before Williams took the stand Wednesday morning, an attorney for the company producing Jackson's comeback shows testified that Murray had asked for a CPR machine and a second physician as part of his contract to care for the pop singer.
When AEG Live attorney Kathy Jorrie remarked that resuscitation equipment was already likely to be at the London venue where Jackson was to perform, Murray said he “wouldn’t want to take a chance,” she testified.
Murray said “he will be putting on an extraordinary performance,” she recalled. “Because of that, given his age and the strenuous performance he was putting on, he needed to be sure if something went wrong, he [would have] a CPR machine.”
He also said he needed a second doctor in case he was tired or unavailable, she testified.
When she asked for Murray’s help in collecting Jackson's medical records from the last five years for insurance purposes, Murray said he had been the singer’s personal physician for three years, but the volume of records would be “very tiny” because of how stellar the singer's health was, Jorrie testified.
Earlier, Jorrie said Murray called her twice as she drafted his $150,000-a-month contract with Jackson 10 days before Jackson died, asking for a "number of revisions."
Murray was to be paid retroactively beginning in May 2009 and through March 2010, Jorrie said.
Murray did not want to be required to refund any portion of his monthly payment if Jackson changed his mind or canceled the tour, she said.
During the contract negotiations and drafting, Murray repeatedly offered that Jackson was "perfectly healthy" and in "excellent condition," she testified.
Jorrie's testimony came after AEG Live executive Paul Gongaware testified that he was on the lookout for any drug use by Jackson because he was concerned about how it would affect the "This Is It" tour.
Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter and administering the fatal dose of the surgical anesthetic propofol that caused Jackson's death.
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-- Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan at L.A. County Superior Court
Photo: Michael Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, right, arrives at court Wednesday. Credit: Jason Redmond / Associated Press ||||| Jurors at Dr. Conrad Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial Tuesday heard the physician describe the hours following Michael Jackson’s death, during which he broke the news to the pop star’s children and his mother.
Murray stared blankly ahead, expressionless, as the remainder of his June 27, 2009, police interview with two detectives was played in court. About two-thirds of the 2-1/2-hour tape was played for jurors Friday.
In the recording, Murray recounted how Jackson’s daughter Paris reacted to word of her father’s death.
Conrad Murray witnesses: Who's who
“She cried and was very stark,” the doctor said in a steady voice in the tape. He said he told the girl he had tried his best.
“I know you tried your best, but I’m really sad,” Murray recalled Paris saying. “You know, I will wake up in the morning, and I won’t be able to see my daddy.”
"The singer’s mother, Katherine Jackson, “broke down” when a doctor told her Jackson had died, Murray also recalled.
Murray reacted with surprise at some of the medications the detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department asked about, and when they told him that rotten marijuana had been found at Jackson’s home.
He said the singer never disclosed to him the other doctors he saw or the medication those doctors gave him. He found out about the physicians and medication from seeing pill bottles at Jackson’s bedside, Murray said.
“I realized that he’s also seeing other physicians. But he does not disclose to me,” Murray said. The physician said he was told by people working with Jackson that after visits with one of those doctors, dermatologist Arnold Klein, the pop star would appear intoxicated.
“His production team had said to me recently that his worst days on the set is when he had gone to Dr. Klein’s office, which is about three times a week; and when he came back, he was basically wasted and required at least 24 hours for recovery,” he said.
Murray also reacted with surprise when detectives asked him where his bags of medical equipment were.
“Everything I use, I would put it quickly into the bags and just put it into the cupboard, because he wanted me to not have anything hanging around,” the doctor said.
Det. Scott Smith later said under questioning by a prosecutor that the doctor’s eyes grew wide and a look of surprise appeared on his face when the investigators said they hadn’t recovered the bags.
Smith also said the interview was the first time Murray disclosed he had given propofol, the anesthetic that killed Jackson, and that the doctor did not mention the numerous phone calls that records show he made the morning of Jackson’s death.
Murray faces a maximum four-year prison sentence for the involuntary manslaughter charge.
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Photo: Dr. Conrad Murray in court. Credit: Mario Anzuoni / pool ||||| Jurors at the trial of Michael Jackson’s personal physician heard a recording Wednesday of the singer sounding heavily drugged six weeks before his death.
In the recording discovered on Dr. Conrad Murray’s iPhone, Jackson rambled to his doctor about his upcoming comeback concerts and plans to build a hospital for children.
“God wants me to do it. I’m gonna do it, Conrad,” the singer said in slurred words.
“I know you would,” Murray replied.
Conrad Murray witnesses: Who's who
Mumbling and at times incomprehensible, the singer went on to tell Murray what he had often said publicly -– that he related to children because his music career had interrupted his own youth.
“I love them because I didn’t have a childhood. I had no childhood. I feel their pain,” Jackson said.
Murray replied “Mmm-mmm” repeatedly as Jackson spoke, and after the singer suddenly grew silent asked, “You OK?”
"I am asleep," Jackson replied.
Prosecutors, who first revealed the existence of the recording in opening statements, maintain the May 10, 2009, recording proves Murray knew Jackson’s “state” but continued procuring drugs for him, including the anesthetic propofol which is blamed along with sedatives for his death.
The recording was played during the testimony of a computer forensic expert who analyzed Murray’s iPhone.
Stephen Marx also recovered a second recording, a voicemail in which Jackson's manager told Murray his famous patient needed stepped-up medical treatment.
In the message left five days before Jackson’s death, manager Frank DiLeo asked the physician to call him.
"I’m sure you are aware he had an episode last night. He’s sick,” said DiLeo, who died earlier this year. “I think you may need to get a blood test on him. We got to see what he’s doing.”
Jackson had missed a week of rehearsals and arrived at one practice too weak to perform, according to previous testimony.
Murray faces a maximum of four years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson’s June 25, 2009, death. His defense contends the singer self-administered propofol and sedatives.
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-- Harriet Ryan
Photo: Dr. Conrad Murray wipes away tears in court. Credit: Al Seib | – Michael Jackson's personal assistant took the stand today in the Conrad Murray trial, and talked about a mysterious cream he says the doctor wanted to retrieve right after the singer's death. Michael Amir Williams testified about the day Jackson died, saying "we were making small talk about how horrible it was, just tearing (up)." The doctor then said "there's some cream in Michael's room or house that he wouldn't want the world to know about … so he requested I or someone else give him a ride back to house to get it." The New York Daily News reports that Williams says he lied to get his way out of complying with Murray's "odd" request: He told the doctor that police had taken his car keys, and then he ordered Jackson's security team to lock down the house. Other key moments from court today: TMZ reports that Kathy Jorrie, the attorney for concert promoter AEG, testified that Murray requested a CPR machine be present during Jackson's London "This Is It" performances. When she asked why, he cited the strenuous nature of the concerts and Michael's age. The day before Jackson died, however, Murray told her the singer was in "perfect health." The Los Angeles Times also reports on Jorrie's testimony, and notes that she says she asked Murray to help her collect Jackson's medical records for the last five years for insurance reasons. Murray told her that the records from the three years he had been treating the singer would be "very tiny" because Jackson was in such excellent health. |
Updated at 12:49 p.m.
The Federal Election Commission on Thursday gave a green light to donating bitcoins to political committees, one of the first rulings by a government agency on how to treat the virtual currency.
In a 6-to-0 vote, the panel said that a PAC can accept bitcoin donations, as well as purchase them, but it must sell its bitcoins and convert them into U.S. dollars before they are deposited into an official campaign account. The commission did not approve the use of bitcoin to acquire goods and services.
After the vote, however, individual commissioners offered sharply divergent views on whether their decision limits bitcoin donations to small amounts -- creating more uncertainty about how much of the Internet currency that political committees can accept.
The FEC had deadlocked on a similar question in the fall, with the three Democratic appointees saying they wanted the agency to take more time to study the issue and develop a formal policy to govern the use of bitcoins in campaigns. At the time, some commissioners expressed concern that the virtual currency could be used to mask the identity of donors.
On Thursday, the panel’s vote was swift. The decision came in the form of guidance to Make Your Laws PAC, not an official rule or regulation. But it opens the door to the use of bitcoins by any federal political committee.
In its advisory opinion request, the Make Your Laws PAC said it is seeking to accept bitcoin donations in increments up to $100.
That low sum assuaged the concerns of several commissioners about the risks of the virtual currency, said Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic appointee.
"The $100 limit was really important to us," she said. "We have to balance a desire to accommodate innovation, which is a good thing, with a concern that we continue to protect transparency in the system and ensure that foreign money doesn't seep in."
Because the commission only approved the acceptance of bitcoin as specifically described in the request by the Make Your Laws PAC, the decision does not permit contributions of more than $100, she said.
But FEC Chairman Lee Goodman, a Republican appointee to the panel, disagreed. He said that the advisory opinion treats bitcoin donations as in-kind contributions -- not official currency -- meaning that the only limits that apply are the federal caps on all forms of accepted donations. Those limit individuals to giving $2,600 to a candidate per election and $5,000 to a political action committee. Individuals and corporations can give unlimited sums to super PACs.
"To me, the opinion that the commission approved today supports the right of bitcoin users to contribute as they would all other kind things of value," he said, such as silver dollars and works of art.
"This advisory opinion in no way established the outer limit," Goodman added.
The panel was in agreement on the need for transparency about who makes the bitcoin donations. The Make Your Laws PAC pledged to obtain the name, address, occupation and employer of all bitcoin contributors -- even though those details are only required of donors who give $200 and more to federal campaigns.
The FEC advisory opinion also said that committees accepting bitcoin must report their value based on the exchange rate the day the contribution is made. Bitcoin prices were hovering near $440 on Thursday, down from roughly $530 nearly a month ago.
In its decision, the FEC concluded that bitcoins fit the definition of “money or anything of value” that political committees may accept under federal law, while noting that other government agencies, as well as the courts, are still grappling with the question of whether bitcoins should be treated like money.
“The Commission expresses no opinion regarding the application of federal securities law, tax law, or other law outside the Commission’s jurisdiction,” the election commission panel stressed in its advisory opinion.
Goodman said the FEC needed to weigh in on the debate, even though it remains unclear how the government will deal with bitcoin broadly.
"Just philosophically, I think it's important for the FEC to embrace technology and innovation, and that’s what we did today," he said.
Brian Fung contributed to this report. ||||| FEC Clears Campaigns to Solicit Bitcoins
By Eliza Newlin Carney
The Federal Election Commission has unanimously ruled to permit the use of bitcoins for political contributions, a move that lends legitimacy to the virtual currency but leaves unclear how valuable or useful bitcoins will prove to be in elections.
The commission approved bitcoin campaign contributions 6-0 Thursday in response to an advisory opinion request from the Make Your Laws PAC, which promotes direct citizen participation in the legislative process. The FEC had deadlocked on a previous, similar request submitted last year.
Make Your Laws had asked the FEC for permission to collect bitcoin contributions no larger than $100 per election, per donor. It was not immediately clear whether, in giving the Make Your Laws PAC the green light, the FEC was approving only bitcoin donations capped at $100, or whether larger virtual contributions would be permitted.
The FEC also approved the PAC’s request to purchase bitcoins, but only if it sells the virtual currency and converts it into dollars before depositing and spending it. The FEC also stressed the PAC’s obligation to ensure safeguards to obtain and report the identities of its donors, given the anonymous nature of bitcoin transactions.
Bitcoins have grown increasingly popular with political committees and candidates, most notably libertarians, who have forged ahead in collecting them even in the absence of approval or guidance from the FEC. Candidates and committees collecting bitcoins include Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, who lost his primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn in March, and the Livingston County Libertarians in Michigan.
A campaign that collects bitcoins that then increase in value would enjoy a windfall, but the currency comes with risks as well. Created in 2009, bitcoins are privately issued outside the normal banking system and are transferred digitally among participating investors and merchants. In a recent Investor Alert, the Securities and Exchange Commission cites the risk of Ponzi schemes, unlicensed sellers and unsubstantiated promises of high returns in bitcoin transactions. ||||| Mike Caldwell, a software engineer, holds a 25 bitcoin token at his shop in Sandy, Utah in May of last year. Caldwell mints physical versions of bitcoins. (Photo: Rick Bowmer, AP)
WASHINGTON — Bitcoin, the fast-growing digital currency, is coming to political campaigns.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) unanimously approved its use as a political donation Thursday, after months of debate on the issue.
Commissioners imposed several conditions. Among them: No anonymous bitcoin contributions will be allowed, and campaign treasurers must scrutinize the donations for "evidence of illegality."
Jim Harper, global policy counsel of the industry's Bitcoin Foundation, said the FEC's move lends further legitimacy to the computer-generated currency. "It's another part of the growing body of regulation that establishes bitcoin as a co-equal part of the financial services system," he told USA TODAY.
Rep. Jared Polis, a liberal Democrat from Colorado and a bitcoin backer, immediately announced his campaign would begin accepting the digital money. He praised the FEC for its "forward-looking stance" to recognize "the rights of individuals seeking alternatives to government-backed currencies to participate in our democratic political process."
However, it's not clear how quickly the currency will spread through the election landscape. Officials with the campaign committee working to elect House Democrats said they had no immediate plans to begin accepting bitcoin. Other Democratic and Republican committees did not immediately respond to interview requests.
Political observers say they expect bitcoin's use to be embraced first by candidates cultivating voters in libertarian-leaning and tech-savvy circles where the currency first gained acceptance. "You may not see a lot of establishment candidates in the parties" rushing to accept the currency just yet, said Michael Toner, a Washington campaign-finance lawyer and a former FEC chairman.
Even without the formal approval of regulators, the Libertarian Party began accepting bitcoin about a year ago and has collected the equivalent of about $10,000, party executive director Wes Benedict said Thursday. Many Libertarians would prefer a gold-backed currency and contributing bitcoin "shows a little bit of protest against Federal Reserve policies," he said.
At the state level, Texas' Republican attorney general Greg Abbott announced last month that he would accept the virtual currency as an "in-kind" contribution to his bid for state governor. A fellow Texas Republican, Rep. Steve Stockman, accepted the currency in his failed Senate bid.
The commission is the latest federal agency to offer guidance on the digital currency, which operates independently of governments and banks. The IRS recently said it would tax bitcoin as property, not currency.
The FEC's action came in response to a request brought by a single political action committee, Make Your Laws PAC, which pledged to accept no more than $100 worth of bitcoin from each contributor per election.
The commissioners, who often are sharply divided along party lines, issued dueling statements after the vote in which they disagreed about the size of bitcoin contributions that will be allowed.
Democrats on the panel said bitcoin donations should not exceed $100, the current cap on cash contributions in federal campaigns. Lee Goodman, a Republican who serves as commission chairman, said bitcoin contributions are more like in-kind donations, such as securities or a painting, and are subject to higher contribution limits.
Toner said he expected more back-and-forth on the matter from the commission.
Dan Backer, a conservative lawyer who unsuccessfully asked the FEC to approve bitcoin use last year, said he's not waiting for a final answer. He intends to start making contributions larger than $100 to House and Senate candidates through BitPAC, a political action committee he founded.
Follow @fschouten on Twitter.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1kW6KWU ||||| jonathan ernst/reuters The Supreme Court has issued a major ruling on campaign giving limits.
Reactions are flowing in fast to Wednesday's landmark Supreme Court decision on campaign finance, which strikes down limits on overall giving to candidates, parties and PACs.
In a split vote along ideological lines, the high court said donors can give the maximum amount to candidates for president and Congress as well as to political action committees and parties without running afoul of total giving limits, now capped at $123,200.
Supporters of the majority opinion, which doesn't get rid of gift limits for individual political offices, hailed the ruling as a boon to free expression; detractors said it would drown out the voices of small donors.
A selection of this morning's reactions:
“Today’s decision in McCutcheon v FEC is Citizens United round two, further opening the floodgates for the nation’s wealthiest few to drown out the voices of the rest of us,” said Miles Rapoport, president of Common Cause. “The Court has reversed nearly 40 years of its own precedents, laid out a welcome mat for corruption, and turned its back on the lessons learned from the Watergate scandal. This decision once again demonstrates the Court majority’s ignorance of the real world of American politics, the one in which big money buys big returns.”
Michael Waldman, president, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law: "Our Founders feared corruption. They did not want government beholden to narrow, elite interests. Eliminating these limits will now allow a single politician to solicit, and a single donor to give, up to $3.6 million through the use of joint fundraising committees. Following the Citizens United decision, this will further inundate a political system already flush with cash, marginalize average voters, and elevate those who can afford to buy political access."
“This is a great day for the first amendment, and a great day for political speech,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. “With Citizens United and now McCutcheon, the Supreme Court has continued to restrict the role of the federal government in limiting and regulating speech. We hope further efforts to increase the ability of citizens to participate in our democracy are also successful.”
Karen Scharff on behalf of the Fair Elections for New York campaign: "Four years after Governor Cuomo campaigned on the promise of addressing political corruption, he has once again failed to deliver on comprehensive campaign finance reform in New York. Now the Supreme Court has given wealthy donors even more power to make huge campaign contributions, a decision likely to only further erode the public's trust that their elected leaders are working for them. Governor Cuomo and the IDC’s decision not to include publicly funded campaigns in this year's budget cements their role as supporters of the status quo."
Rep. Charles Rangel: “Today's flawed SCOTUS decision is simply a threat to our democracy, with absolutely no grounds of justification. It's a shame that The Supreme Court again decided to open the floodgate of millions of dollars into the electoral process, effectively undermining the power of the people to choose their own elected leaders. Our elections should only be driven by voters who fall within its district. I find it unacceptable and troubling that millionaires and billionaires will be able to influence the polls under the pretext of exercising free speech. We have an obligation to act now to reverse the tide of special interest influence over our political system and to restore transparency and democratic principles into our electoral process."
Center for Competitive Politics Chairman/former FEC Chairman Bradley Smith: "Today is a good day for democracy. The Court has put some teeth into the requirement that campaign contribution limits must have a legitimate anti-corruption purpose. This will make it easier for candidates and parties to raise funds and that is also a good thing."
The court's decision follows... | – Bitcoins just got into politics: The FEC said yesterday that people can use them to make political contributions. As far as the fine print goes, any PAC that accepts them must convert them into dollars before using the money, the Washington Post reports. Also, no anonymous donations will be allowed, and campaigns must give them a good look for "evidence of illegality," USA Today reports. The grass-roots Make Your Laws PAC that made the initial request to the FEC requested a $100 limit, but at this point it's not clear whether "the FEC was approving only bitcoin donations capped at $100, or whether larger virtual contributions would be permitted," notes Roll Call. Though not an official rule, the FEC's 6-0 vote "opens the door to the use of bitcoins by any federal political committee," observes the Post. However, the move comes as the US Securities and Exchange Commission issues a warning to investors, declaring that bitcoin "does not have an established track record of credibility and trust," PC World reports. |
Asiana crew 'over-relied' on automated systems, NTSB report finds Crew misunderstood systems, NTSB finds
Debris from the July 2013 crash lies on the runway. The pilots were too dependent on automated systems they didn't understand, the report found. Debris from the July 2013 crash lies on the runway. The pilots were too dependent on automated systems they didn't understand, the report found. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Asiana crew 'over-relied' on automated systems, NTSB report finds 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
(06-25) 16:26 PDT WASHINGTON -- The crew of the Asiana Airlines plane that crashed last year at San Francisco International Airport relied too much on automated flight controls they didn't fully understand and mismanaged the landing as it went wrong, a federal safety panel concluded Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board also found that the three-member crew flying the Boeing 777 was fatigued at the end of a cross-Pacific trip from South Korea and distracted by cockpit duties as the plane made its final approach July 6 - both of which probably contributed to their failure to notice that the jet was descending too quickly and losing speed.
Based on its findings, the safety board recommended that Boeing create better training manuals and procedures for using its automatic throttle controls. It also urged Asiana to improve its training methods and give more manual flight instruction to its pilots so they will be better able to handle any confusion about automation.
Crew 'mismanagement'
A majority of the board, however, pinned the crash squarely on pilot "mismanagement," describing as many as 30 errors that cascaded from minor and correctable 14 miles out of San Francisco to catastrophic and irreversible moments before the crash.
The three pilots on board "had multiple opportunities to recover if it wasn't going well" but failed to do so, said agency investigator Roger Cox. The plane's instrument panel puts "plenty of cues in front of you telling what you have done, but you have to look at them," he said.
Investigators said the pilots "lacked critical manual flying skills."
SFO's worst accident
Three passengers died and nearly 200 were injured when Asiana Flight 214 hit a seawall short of the runway, broke apart and caught fire, in the worst accident ever at SFO. One passenger, a 16-year-old girl from China, was run over by two San Francisco fire rigs in the confusion of the emergency response.
Much of the safety board's attention focused on whether the South Korean crew members adequately understood systems that they believed would automatically prevent the plane from losing too much speed. Christopher Hart, the board's acting chairman, said the crew "over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand."
The board's investigation team said the crew's key error was a lack of knowledge about how to use the auto-throttle, which is meant to maintain a safe speed.
The flying pilot, who had eight years of experience with Asiana but was a novice on the Boeing 777, had disengaged the autopilot when the plane climbed too high, putting the auto-throttle into a hold mode. He expected the auto-throttle to "wake up" if the plane's airspeed slowed too much, investigators found.
However, because he had also turned off the autopilot, the auto-throttle was stuck in idle - a functional interaction of the controls that he did not know about.
As a result, the plane's speed fell to 118 mph when it hit the seawall, well below the target speed of 157 mph for a landing.
The pilot, Lee Kang-guk, 45, told investigators he was "astonished" upon learning that the auto-throttle didn't work as he expected.
Investigators said the throttle mode was displayed on the instrument panel and that the pilots all failed to "call out" their actions to alert each other as to what each was doing.
Defending crew
While some safety board members sharply criticized the pilots, board member Robert Sumwalt, a former pilot, forcefully defended the crew. He said Asiana's training for using the automated throttle system was insufficient - and that there was misunderstanding even among some U.S. trainers about the system on the Boeing 777.
"The errors of the pilots were not because of any incompetence," Sumwalt said. "They were because of an expectation that the autopilot auto-throttle system would do something the airplane was not designed to do."
Boeing took issue Tuesday with the board's recommendation that it make the interface between the plane's automated systems and pilots more intuitive. In a statement, the company said it "respectfully disagrees" with the finding that the 777's auto-flight system contributed to the accident, saying the evidence showed that "all of the airplane's systems performed as designed."
Tired pilots?
Asiana Airlines issued a statement saying the safety board "properly recognized the multiple factors that contributed to this accident."
One of the factors, the safety board found, was fatigue on the part of pilots landing the plane at what would have been nighttime in Seoul after a 10 1/2-hour flight. But investigators did not explain how the Asiana pilots' fatigue differed from that of any other international flight crew, and some experts dismissed the finding.
"That's an absurdity," said aviation consultant Barry Schiff of Los Angeles. "Every pilot is off his time zone when he goes across the ocean. We've had to put up that since the beginning of flight.
"The bottom line is the pilots failed to monitor and maintain proper flying speed, which is about as fundamental as it gets," Schiff said. "Whether the auto-throttle system functioned as it should have is irrelevant."
This story has been corrected since it appeared in print editions. ||||| FILE - In this July 6, 2013 aerial file photo, the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 lies on the ground after it crashed at the San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. Nearly a year after Asiana... (Associated Press)
The National Transportation Safety Board said there was confusion over whether one of the airliner's key controls was maintaining speed.
The agency also cited the complexity of the Boeing 777's autothrottle and pilot training by the South Korea-based airline as contributing to the crash, which killed three passengers and injured more than 200.
The plane, with 307 people on board, was too low and too slow during the landing attempt. Its tail struck a seawall and was ripped off. The rest of plane went spinning and sliding down the runway. The crash was the only fatal passenger airline accident in the U.S. in the last five years.
Before the vote, Chris Hart, the NTSB's acting chairman, said that increasingly complex automated aircraft controls designed to improve safety are instead creating new opportunities for error.
The Asiana flight crew "over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand," he said.
Among the other issues raised by the investigation are some that long have concerned aviation officials, including hesitancy by some pilots to abort a landing when things go awry or to challenge a captain's actions.
The irony of the accident is that it occurred at all. Three experienced pilots were in the cockpit on July 6, 2013. The plane, a Boeing 777, had one of the industry's best safety records. And weather conditions that sunny day were near perfect.
But the wide-bodied jetliner with 307 people on board was too low and too slow during the landing. It struck a seawall just short of the runway, ripping off the tail and sending the rest of the plane spinning and skidding down the runway. When the shattered plane came to rest, a fire erupted.
Despite the violence of the crash, only three people were killed - Chinese teens seated in the back who may not have been wearing their seatbelts and were thrown from the plane. One of the teenage girls survived the crash but was run over by two rescue vehicles in the chaos afterward. Nearly 200 people were injured.
In documents made public by the safety board, Asiana acknowledged the likely cause of the accident was the crew's failure to monitor and maintain the plane's airspeed, and its failure to abort the landing when in trouble. The South Korea-based airline said the pilot and co-pilot reasonably believed the automatic throttle would keep the plane flying fast enough to land safely, when in fact the auto throttle was effectively shut off after the pilot idled it to correct an unexplained climb earlier in the landing.
Asiana said the plane should have been designed so that the auto throttle would maintain the proper speed after the pilot put it in "hold mode."
Boeing had been warned about the problem by U.S. and European aviation regulators. Asiana urged the safety board to recommend that the aircraft maker be required to include an audible warning to alert pilots when the throttle changes to a setting in which it no longer is maintaining speed.
"Asiana has a point," said John Cox, a former airline pilot and aviation safety consultant, "but this is not the first time it has happened. Any of these highly automated airplanes have these conditions that require special training and pilot awareness. ... This is something that has been known for many years and trained for many years."
Boeing told the board there was nothing wrong with the plane, and the crash was caused by the failure of the pilots to maintain speed and to abort the landing when the approach had become unstable, as required by their company's policies. An unstable approach occurs when a plane's speed or rate of descent is too fast or to slow, or the plane isn't properly aligned for landing.
Captain Lee Kang Kuk, 45, a veteran pilot who was new to the 777, was flying the plane. Because an airport navigational aid that helps planes land wasn't working that day, Kuk was flying a visual approach that involves lining up the jet for landing by looking through the windshield and using numerous other cues, rather than relying on a radio-based system called a glide-slope that guides aircraft to the runway. A training captain was sitting next to him in the right seat watching his performance.
Kuk told transportation accident investigators that he did not immediately move to abort the landing after it became unstable because he felt only the instructor pilot had that authority. Cockpit culture in which the senior captain is viewed as supreme was identified as a factor in several South Korean airliner crashes in the 1980s and '90s. Afterward, procedures and hierarchies were overhauled in Korea and elsewhere, including the U.S.
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Mendoza reported from Santa Cruz, California.
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Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy and Martha Mendoza at http://www.twitter.com/mendozamartha | – A combination of factors led to last year's crash of an Asiana Airlines jet in San Francisco, but the one that tops the list of a new report is a straightforward one: "flight crew mismanagement." Federal investigators say the South Korean pilots should have realized that their automatic throttle was bringing them in too low and too slow and overridden it in time, reports the San Francisco Chronicle and the AP. The big problem is that the crew "over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand," says Christopher Hart, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB, therefore, wants Boeing to provide better training for its increasingly complex systems. "In their efforts to compensate for the unreliability of human performance, the designers of automated control systems have unwittingly created opportunities for new error types that can be even more serious than those they were seeking to avoid," says Hart. The report also says the pilots were fatigued at the end of the flight, which didn't help. Three people were killed in the crash, including one young woman who was hit by emergency vehicles. The report generally praised the emergency response but cites problems with training and radio communications. |
To the Editor:
As Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens’s mother, I am writing to object to any mention of his name and death in Benghazi, Libya, by Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party.
I know for certain that Chris would not have wanted his name or memory used in that connection. I hope that there will be an immediate and permanent stop to this opportunistic and cynical use by the campaign.
MARY F. COMMANDAY
Oakland, Calif. ||||| A former top diplomat in Libya on Wednesday described a 2 a.m. call from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the middle of the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, amid confusion about the fate of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and fears about the safety of additional American personnel.
FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012 file photo, a Libyan man investigates the inside of the U.S. Consulate after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, on the night... (Associated Press)
"She asked me what was going on and I briefed her on developments. Most of the conversation was about the search for Ambassador Stevens," Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, told the House oversight committee. "It was also about what we were going to do with our personnel in Benghazi and I told her we would need to evacuate and she said that was the right thing to do."
Haltingly, Hicks recounted "the saddest phone call in my life"_getting word from a Libyan official that Stevens had been killed.
The politically charged hearing on the Sept. 11, 2012 attack is the latest in a long-running and bitter dispute between the administration and congressional Republicans who have challenged the White House's actions before and after the deadly assault, in which when Stevens and three other Americans.
The target of much of the conservative wrath is Clinton, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, who stepped down after four grueling years with very high approval ratings. In her last appearance on Capitol Hill in January, a defiant Clinton took responsibility for the department's missteps leading up to the assault, while rejecting suggestions the administration had tried to mislead the country about the attack.
The witnesses Wednesday were Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism; Hicks, the former deputy of mission in Libya; and Eric Nordstrom, a former regional security officer in Libya who testified before the panel in October.
Hicks said that shortly after he was told Stevens was dead, unidentified Libyans called Hicks' staff from the phone that had been with Stevens that night. These Libyans said Stevens was with them, and U.S. officials should come fetch the ambassador, Hicks said. Hicks said he believed Stevens' body was at a hospital at that point, but he could not be certain.
"We suspected we were being baited into a trap," Hicks told the committee, so the U.S. personnel did not follow the callers' instructions. "We did not want to send our people into an ambush," Hicks testified.
An independent panel led by former top diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Gen. Mike Mullen concluded that management and leadership failures at the State Department led to "grossly" inadequate security at the mission. The panel's report singled out the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Near East Affairs.
The report has failed to placate GOP lawmakers, conservatives and outside groups, some of whom contend that Benghazi is comparable to the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals and deserves a more thorough examination. They contend that the Obama administration is covering up information.
Republicans at the hearing focused on the widely debunked talking points used by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice five days after the attack in which she said the attacks appeared to be associated with demonstrations in Egype and Libya over an anti-Islam video.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., assailed Rice's televised comments and said they contradicted statements by Libyan leaders and others who called the attacks pre-meditated assaults by terrorists.
Gowdy said Rice's comments "perpetuated a demonstrably false narrative." Hicks, asked his reaction to the Rice's remarks on five Sunday talk shows, said: "I was stunned. My jaw dropped and I was embarrassed."
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
House Republicans on Wednesday renewed charges that the Obama administration is covering up information about last year's deadly assault in Benghazi, Libya, drawing an angry rebuke from Democrats who accused the GOP of politicizing the issue at a jam-packed hearing.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the purpose of the hearing with three State Department witnesses was to get answers.
"These witnesses deserved to be heard," Issa said.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel's top Democrat, said he wasn't questioning the motives of the witnesses. "I am questioning the motives of those who want to use them for political purposes," he said.
Three State Department witnesses, including the former deputy chief in Libya, were testifying Wednesday before the panel. The hearing is the latest in a long-running and bitter dispute between the administration and congressional Republicans who have challenged the White House's actions before and after the Benghazi attack.
The witnesses were Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism; Gregory Hicks, the former deputy of mission in Libya; and Eric Nordstrom, a former regional security officer in Libya who testified before the panel in October.
On Sept. 11, 2012, two separate attacks hours apart on the U.S. facility in Benghazi killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. An independent panel led by former top diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Gen. Mike Mullen concluded that management and leadership failures at the State Department led to "grossly" inadequate security at the mission. The panel's report singled out the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Near East Affairs.
The report failed to placate GOP lawmakers, conservatives and outside groups, some of whom contend that Benghazi is comparable to the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals and deserves a more thorough examination. Two of the outside groups _ Special Operations Speaks and Special Ops OPSEC _ have been raising money on the issue.
The target of much of the conservative wrath is former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, who stepped down after four grueling years with very high approval ratings. In her last appearance on Capitol Hill in January, a defiant Clinton took responsibility for the department's missteps leading up to the assault, while rejecting suggestions the administration had tried to mislead the country about the attack.
She insisted that requests for more security at the diplomatic mission in Benghazi didn't reach her desk.
"I did not see these requests," she said. "They did not come to me. I did not approve them. I did not deny them."
Yet Republicans are pressing ahead, holding hearings and issuing an interim report that criticized her.
"It looks pretty clear that there was some catastrophic decision-making that in some way contributed to the death of those four Americans," said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. "And that part I think is what the investigation will unfold."
The Pentagon provided Congress with a timeline of the actions of security personnel and other senior officials around the attack last November, but Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday that it was insufficient.
The Oversight committee under Issa's tutelage is looking to its witnesses to "put forward information about Benghazi that the Obama administration has tried to suppress," said Frederick Hill, a spokesman for the panel.
Democrats see it differently.
"It's politics," said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., a member of the panel.
"If it's a fair-minded question of what we could do better (on security), that would benefit us all. But if it's intended to embarrass the president or perhaps Hillary Clinton, then it will be damaging no matter who the next secretary of state is or who the next president is," Welch added.
Last week in Missouri, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., another possible 2016 candidate, said that Clinton's "dereliction of duty" in handling Libya should preclude her from holding office.
Committee Democrats argue that the investigation has become politicized, pointing to their exclusion from much of the Hill-based inquiry. Two Democratic staffers participated in an April 11 interview with Hicks, but the panel's top Democrat said their efforts to find out about Thompson have been thwarted and they've been unable to talk to the witness.
"We have absolutely not one syllable about this guy. He's going to appear in the committee tomorrow, we know nothing about him," Cummings said. "That's unprecedented."
Cummings and other Democrats were furious about the interim report from the committees, released last month, which said senior State Department officials, including Clinton, approved reductions in security at the facilities in Benghazi. The report cited an April 19, 2012, cable that Republicans said had Clinton's signature.
It's standard procedure that cables from the State Department in Washington go out under the secretary's authority and with her signature, or name, typed at the bottom, according to a five-page document put together by the State Department at the request of its senior leadership to rebut some of the claims about Benghazi.
Conservatives who are vital to the GOP in turning out the vote in midterm elections have pressured the party to act forcefully in investigating the Benghazi assault. In the House, more than 130 rank-and-file Republicans have signed onto a resolution calling for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to create a special select committee to look into the attacks, seeing the latest GOP investigation as less than satisfactory.
___
Follow Donna Cassata at http://twitter.com/DonnaCassataAP | – Last week saw the mother of an American who died in Benghazi angrily indict Hillary Clinton in her son's death, using the Republican National Convention as her medium. Now, the mother of another American slain in the attack at the Libyan consulate, Ambassador Chris Stevens, takes to the pages of the New York Times to plead for the opposite: "As Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens’s mother, I am writing to object to any mention of his name and death in Benghazi, Libya, by Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party," writes Mary F. Commanday in a letter to the editor. "I know for certain that Chris would not have wanted his name or memory used in that connection. I hope that there will be an immediate and permanent stop to this opportunistic and cynical use by the campaign." |
A day after New York City said Whole Foods was overcharging customers in what officials described as "the worst case of mislabeling" city investigators had seen in their careers, a Bronx man is suing the supermarket chain over its pricing.
Joseph Bassolino filed a lawsuit Thursday in state Supreme Court. He says he's seeking damages because he bought several mispriced packages of food at Whole Foods over the last three years.
Bassolino's lawsuit cites a report issued Wednesday by the city's Department of Consumer Affairs. It said Whole Foods had been routinely overstating the weight of prepackaged foods, resulting in overcharges. Whole Foods disputed that claim. It said Thursday it was unaware of the lawsuit.
In his complaint, Bassolino says he wants to make the lawsuit a class action.
He alleges deceptive practices, false advertising, unjust profits and breach of contract.
According to the city probe, the DCA tested 80 different pre-packaged products and found that all of them had mislabeled weights. On top of that, 89 percent of the packages tested didn't meet the federal standard for the maximum amount that an individual package can deviate from its actual weight, as set by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The overcharges ranged from $0.80 for a package of pecan panko to nearly $15 more for a package of coconut shrimp.
The findings point to a "systematic problem" with how the product packages at Whole Foods are weighed and labeled, the agency said. It said packages are routinely not weighed or are inaccurately weighed. Some items had all been labeled with the same weight, despite the fact that it would be practically impossible for the individual packages of the items to weigh the same amount. These products included nuts, berries, vegetables and seafood. In some cases, the labeling issue was found with the same exact products at multiple stores throughout New York City.
In one case, the DCA inspected eight packages of vegetable platters that were priced at $20 per package. They found that customers who purchased the platters were overcharged $2.50 on average. Whole Foods made a $20 profit on the eight packages, the DCA said.
In another case, the DCA inspected eight packages of chicken tenders, which were priced at $9.99 per pound. Consumers would have been overcharged $4.13 on average -- a profit of $33.04 for Whole Foods for those eight packages. One package was overpriced by $4.85, the DCA said.
A third inspection of four packages of berries, priced at $8.58 per package, found that customers would have been overcharged by $1.15 on average. That's a $4.60 profit for the four packages. One package was overpriced by $1.84, the DCA said.
“It is unacceptable that New Yorkers shopping for a summer BBQ or who grab something to eat from the self-service aisles at New York City’s Whole Foods stores have a good chance of being overcharged,” Menin said. "As a large chain grocery store, Whole Foods has the money and resources to ensure greater accuracy and to correct what appears to be a widespread problem."
In a statement to NBC New York in response to the city's findings, Whole Foods spokesman Michael Sinatra said, "We disagree with the DCA's overreaching allegations."
He said Whole Foods cooperated fully with the department until it made "grossly excessive monetary demands" to settle the dispute.
"Despite our requests to the DCA, they have not provided evidence to back up their demands nor have they requested any additional information from us, but instead have taken this to the media to coerce us," Sinatra said. "Our customers are our number one stakeholder and we highly value their trust in us."
Sinatra said it has always been Whole Foods' policy to fully refund any items found to have been incorrectly weighed or priced, and that the company "has never intentionally used deceptive practices to incorrectly charge customers."
The fine for falsely labeling a package is as much as $950 for the first violation and up to $1,700 for a subsequent violation, according to the DCA. The potential number of violations that Whole Foods faces for all pre-packaged goods in the city is in the thousands.
There are nine Whole Foods stores in New York City and the company reportedly plans to open a new location in Harlem. It also recently announced plans to open a lower-priced chain of stores called 365 by Whole Foods Market, which it says will offer "a simple way to shop for healthy, high-quality food at great prices."
Copyright Associated Press / NBC New York ||||| Rip-off on aisle four.
The city has launched a probe of Whole Foods Markets after investigators nabbed the upscale food purveyor for routinely overcharging customers on groceries during dozens of inspections dating back to at least 2010, the Daily News has learned.
The most recent spate of violations came during a sting operation the Department of Consumer Affairs conducted in the fall that specifically checked the accuracy of the weight marked on pre-packaged products.
Inspectors weighed 80 different types of items at Whole Foods’ eight locations in the city that were open at the time. They found every label was inaccurate, with many overcharging consumers, agency spokeswoman Abby Lootens told The News.
Whole Foods spokesman Michael Sinatra said the Texas-based chain "never intentionally used deceptive practices to incorrectly charge customers."
Sinatra said Whole Foods disagrees with the city's findings and is "vigorously defending" itself against the allegations. Sinatra also noted that the store always refunds any items found to have been incorrectly priced.
Daily News reporter Reuven Blau shops at Whole Foods on Greenwich St. in Tribeca to determine the accuracy of weighted items on Tuesday. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News)
Whole Foods, according to the city, wasn’t the only bad apple. The sweep included 120 grocery stores citywide, and 77% were hit with one or more violations.
But the notoriously pricy chain was the most egregious offender — leading DCA to open a full-blown investigation of its pricing practices last year, said Commissioner Julie Menin.
"Our inspectors told me it was the worst case of overcharges that they've ever seen," Menin said.
The overcharges ranged from 80 cents for a package of pecan panko to $14.84 for a container of coconut shrimp, Lootens said.
Overall, the city's Whole Foods stores have received more than 800 violations during 107 separate inspections since 2010, totaling more than $58,000 in fines, a Daily News analysis of data obtained via a Freedom of Information Law request shows.
Mini roast beef sandwiches were all priced at $3.49 for 3 ounces, despite their varying weights, from 4.5 to 5.1 ounces. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News)
Menin says the findings were particularly shocking because the chain has been fined for the same violations several times.
The Columbus Circle location has the dubious distinction of being hit with the most pricing violations in the entire city — 240 during 28 inspections dating back to 2010 — The News found. The violations range from failing to display prices to overcharging at the scanner and adding tax to items that are not taxable under state law.
A source familiar with the investigation said a Whole Foods store employee told a DCA inspector that the mislabeled prices were ordered by corporate honchos.
The New York City probe comes after Whole Foods agreed last summer to pay $800,000 to settle a California investigation that found similar problems.
In New York, some of the most common violations were for pre-packaged items that all had identical weights and prices, such as vegetable platters, chicken tenders and berries.
The Daily News picked up organic chicken breasts while shopping at Whole Foods in Tribeca. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News) Breaded chicken breasts were all priced at $5.99 for 7 ounces, even though the actual weights ranged from 6 to 9.2 ounces. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News) The Daily News purchased granola at Whole Foods in Tribeca. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News)
But not all of the inaccurate weights led to cost overcharges, a News review found.
The News picked up $100 worth of groceries at the Tribeca store on Tuesday and found that some identically-priced items actually led to consumer discounts.
Mini roast beef sandwiches were all priced at $3.49 for 3 ounces, despite their varying weights, from 4.5 to 5.1 ounces. Similarly, breaded chicken breasts were all priced at $5.99 for 7 ounces, even though the actual weights ranged from 6 to 9.2 ounces.
"Because of the volume of product that gets produced unintentional mistakes are made," said Jay Peltz, general counsel and vice president of government relations for the Food Industry Alliance of New York, which represents major food retailers and wholesalers in the city.
"If a product is delivered to a store pre-packed and pre-sealed and pre-labeled the retailer does not have control over the packaging and weighting. It's not the retailer — it's the manufacturer that packed the product," he added.
Daily News reporter Reuven Blau examines a pack of organic chicken breasts. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News)
While labeling errors afflicted all of the city's major grocery store chains, Whole Foods' pricing problems stood out as particularly systemic, a News analysis found.
Eight of the city's nine Whole Foods were among the 24 supermarkets that have been hit with five or more charges for inaccurate labels since 2014, according to The News analysis. The Upper East Side location, which just opened in February, has not been nabbed breaking any rules.
The Union Square location was hit with the most counts of mislabeled packages out of any supermarket in the city since 2014 — with 15 during two inspections. The Tribeca location came in second with 14 charges and the Brooklyn location third with 13 charges, both during two separate inspections.
The Garden of Eden on 14th St. was fourth with 11 charges and a Whole Foods in Chelsea was fifth with eight.
John Coskun, the manager at the Garden of Eden, said their problem was outside vendors who mislabeled the weight on items.
"You can see some prices are really high and wonder why. I always assumed it was because they were selling something really healthy or organic," said analyst Marlena Sebunia, 29, as she exited the Whole Foods store in Tribeca.
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! | – A blistering report alleging overpricing at Whole Foods in New York City has brought the chain more than just bad publicity—now it's facing a lawsuit from an angry customer. Joseph Bassolino filed his suit today in state Supreme Court, one day after city investigators accused Whole Foods of systematically overstating the weights of packaged goods and thus overcharging, reports NBC New York. A quote from the city's Department of Consumer Affairs provides a taste: "The overcharges ranged from [80 cents] for a package of pecan panko to $14.84 for a package of coconut shrimp," says a statement. "Our inspectors tell me this is the worst case of mislabeling they have seen in their careers," adds DCA Commissioner Julie Menin. Whole Foods denies the allegations, which resulted from an undercover operation in the fall in which investigators weighed more than 80 types of products throughout the chain's eight locations in the city, reports the Daily News. Whole Foods "never intentionally used deceptive practices to incorrectly charge customers," says a spokesperson. Still, a city investigation is underway, and Bassolino hopes to turn his lawsuit into a class-action one so others can join. |
CLOSE Teva Pharmaceuticals has launched a voluntary recall into two drugs used to treat high blood pressure as more medications face concerns over a possible cancer risk. USA TODAY
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a voluntary nationwide recall of drugs made by Teva Pharmaceuticals. Some of the blood pressure medications might contain a possible human carcinogen. (Photo: Alison Young, USA TODAY)
Teva Pharmaceuticals has launched a voluntary recall into two drugs used to treat high blood pressure as yet more medications face concerns over a possible cancer risk.
In a statement from Teva posted by the Food and Drug Administration, the recall affects all lots of combination tablets featuring the drugs amlodipine and valsartan and another combo drug featuring amlodipine, valsartan, and hydrochlorothiazide.
The drugs could contain an impurity called N-nitroso-diethylamine (NDEA), which has been classified as a possible human carcinogen, the FDA said.
Patients taking either drugs should contact their doctor or pharmacist for advice or alternative treatments. Stopping the drugs immediately with no comparable alternative could pose a greater risk to patients' health, said Teva.
More: Doctors: Blood pressure drug substitutes are available for patients affected by recalls
More: FDA chief: Blood pressure medicine recalls reflect increased scrutiny on drug safety
More: Want more news like this? Subscribe to get the Daily Briefing in your inbox.
Customers and patients with questions can contact Teva by phone at 888-838-2872, or email at [email protected].
In August, the FDA announced an expanded recall of valsartan because products may contain the impurity. Last month, two more recalls were announced: one for the drug irbesartan and a second recall for losartan potassium hydrochlorothiazide tablets.
During an interview in November with USA TODAY, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the blood pressure drug recalls reflect an increased focus on drug quality to ensure no impurities are present.
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2018/11/30/blood-pressure-drugs-two-more-medications-recalled-cancer-risk/2159850002/ ||||| Nov. 27, 2018 -- Two more valsartan blood pressure drugs have been recalled because of impurities in its key ingredient.
Teva Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday announced a nationwide recall of all amlodipine/valsartan combination tablets and all amlodipine/valsartan/hydrochlorothiazide tablets due to a problem with the valsartan active ingredient manufactured in Mylan, India.
An impurity known as N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) was found in Mylan’s valsartan. NDEA has been found to possibly cause cancer in humans.
The impacted drugs are used to treat high blood pressure. Teva says no reports of illnesses have been reported.
Patients taking these drugs are urged to continue and to contact their pharmacist or doctor for alternatives.
The FDA in July announced the recall of five other valsartan products for NDEA contamination as well as possible contamination from a similar impurity, NDMA. Several more recalls were announced in August, while an irbesartan-based blood pressure drug was recalled earlier this month, along with another made with losartan.
All of the recalled products have ingredients manufactured in either China or India. The sudden rush of recalls because of ingredients made overseas has put more scrutiny on these foreign labs and on the FDA’s ability to effectively monitor their products for safety. ||||| Teva Pharmaceuticals has initiated a voluntary recall in the United States, to the patient level, of all lots of Amlodipine / Valsartan combination tablets and Amlodipine / Valsartan / Hydrochlorothiazide combination tablets (see table below) due to an impurity detected above specification limits in an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufactured by Mylan India. The impurity found in Mylan’s valsartan API is known as N-nitroso-diethylamine (NDEA), which has been classified as a probable human carcinogen. This chemical is typically found in very small amounts in certain foods, drinking water, air pollution, and certain industrial processes.
Amlodipine/Valsartan combination tablets and Amlodipine/Valsartan/Hydrochlorothiazide combination tablets are used for the treatment of high blood pressure. To date, Teva has not received any reports of adverse events signaling a potential link or exposure to valsartan.
Patients taking Amlodipine / Valsartan combination tablets or Amlodipine / Valsartan / Hydrochlorothiazide combination tablets are advised to continue taking their medication and to contact their pharmacist or physician for advice on alternative treatment. The risk of harm to a patient’s health may be higher if the treatment is stopped immediately without any comparable alternative treatment.
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA is notifying its distributors and customers by certified mail and is arranging for return/reimbursement of returned recalled products. Distributors and retailers that have product that is being recalled should immediately stop distribution and quarantine any quantities remaining in their control and return the recalled product.
Customers and patients with medical-related questions, information about an Adverse Event or other questions about the Teva products being recalled should contact Teva’s Medical Information by phone at: 888-838-2872, option 3, then, option 4. Live calls are received Monday-Friday, 9:00AM-5:00PM Eastern Time with Voicemail available 24 hours/day, 7 days/week or email [email protected].
Adverse reactions or other problems experienced with the use of the products may also be reported to Teva directly at 888-838-2872 or to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program either online, by regular mail or by fax.
Complete and submit the report Online : www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm
: www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm Regular Mail or Fax: Download form www.fda.gov/MedWatch/getforms.htm or call 1- 800-332-1088 to request a reporting form, then complete and return to the address on the pre-addressed form, or submit by fax to 1-800-FDA-0178
Patient safety and product quality is critical to Teva. As always, Teva will continue to partner with, and regularly update, all relevant stakeholders, including regulatory authorities, to resolve
this situation. This issue is not limited to valsartan medicines manufactured and distributed by Teva. Some valsartan-containing products manufactured and distributed by other pharmaceutical companies using the same API supplier may also be affected.
Lots Under Voluntary Recall
The products that are part of this voluntary recall and listed below are packed in bottles. These lots were distributed nationwide to Teva’s Direct Accounts (Wholesale/Distributor/Retail/Repackagers/VA Pharmacy, et. al).
Lot # Exp. Date Product Description / Strength Bottle Size NDC 23X017 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 90 Count 0093-7690-98 23X018 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 30 Count 0093-7690-56 23X018 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 90 Count 0093-7690-98 23X019 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 30 Count 0093-7690-56 23X019 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 90 Count 0093-7690-98 23X020 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 30 Count 0093-7690-56 23X022 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 30 Count 0093-7690-56 23X023 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 30 Count 0093-7690-56 23X023 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 90 Count 0093-7690-98 23X024 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/160 mg 90 Count 0093-7690-98 24X012 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/160 mg 30 Count 0093-7691-56 24X012 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/160 mg 90 Count 0093-7691-98 24X013 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/160 mg 30 Count 0093-7691-56 25X028 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/320 mg 90 Count 0093-7692-98 25X029 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7692-56 25X029 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/320 mg 90 Count 0093-7692-98 25X030 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7692-56 25X031 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7692-56 25X032 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7692-56 25X035 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7692-56 25X037 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 5 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7692-56 26X036 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 90 Count 0093-7693-98 26X038 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 90 Count 0093-7693-98 26X039 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 30 Count 0093-7693-56
Lot # Exp. Date Product Description / Strength Bottle Size NDC 10 mg/320 mg 26X039 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 90 Count 0093-7693-98 26X040 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56 26X041 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56 26X042 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56 26X043 11/2018 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56 26X044 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 90 Count 0093-7693-98 26X045 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 90 Count 0093-7693-98 26X046 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56 26X047 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56 26X048 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56 26X049 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56 26X050 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56 26X051 4/2019 Amlodipine and Valsartan Tablets 10 mg/320 mg 30 Count 0093-7693-56
Lot # Exp. Date Product Description/ Strength Bottle Size NDC 18X010 2/2019 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 5 mg/160 mg/12.5 mg 30 count 0093-7807-56 18X010 2/2019 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 5 mg/160 mg/12.5 mg 90 count 0093-7807-98 18X011 2/2019 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 5 mg/160 mg/12.5 mg 30 count 0093-7807-56 20X006 11/2018 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 10 mg/160 mg/12.5 mg 30 count 0093-7810-56 20X006 11/2018 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 10 mg/160 mg/12.5 mg 90 count 0093-7810-98 21X006 11/2018 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 10 mg/160 mg/25 mg 30 count 0093-7038-56 21X006 11/2018 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 10 mg/160 mg/25 mg 90 count 0093-7038-98 21X007 2/2019 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 10 mg/160 mg/25 mg 30 count 0093-7038-56 22X045 2/2019 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 10 mg/320 mg/25 mg 30 count 0093-7809-56 22X045 2/2019 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 10 mg/320 mg/25 mg 90 count 0093-7809-98 22X046 02/2019 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 10 mg/320 mg/25 mg 30 count 0093-7809-56 22X047 02/2019 Amlodipine, Valsartan, and Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets 10 mg/320 mg/25 mg 30 count 0093-7809-56
### | – Taking blood-pressure medication? Teva Pharmaceuticals is voluntarily recalling two drugs as part of an ongoing effort to take medications off the market that might cause cancer, USA Today reports. In an FDA-released statement, Teva says it's recalling all combination tablets using valsartan and amlodipine as well as a drug combining hydrochlorothiazide, valsartan, and amlodipine. Patients using them are advised to seek medical assistance in transferring to another drug. The move follows earlier recalls this year for other valsartan products and blood-pressure drugs made with irbesartan and losartan, per WebMD. (The FDA has also recalled Kratom.) |
UPDATE: According to court records, the charge of involuntary manslaughter against Adam Alexander was dismissed, and he was tried and found not guilty on the charge of child neglect.
The mother of one Northern Virginia baby and the parents of another have been charged in their children’s deaths, Prince William County police said Monday.
The two infants, 4-month-old Jahari Jones and 9-month-old Avarice Alexander, died in 2014. But police and prosecutors did not decide to charge the adults with killing them until this year.
The charges in those two cases, which have not been previously reported, bring the number of homicide cases in Prince William in 2015 to 11, five more than in 2014.
The two babies are among the youngest victims of alleged homicide across the Washington region. Of the 287 homicides that The Washington Post has tracked in its database of killings in the area this year, authorities say six other victims are younger than 10 years old.
[The Post’s map of D.C.-area homicides]
Jahari’s mother, Candice Christa Semidey, fed him and wrapped him in a blanket on Nov. 8, 2014, according to information provided by police spokesman Jonathan Perok on Monday in response to an inquiry by The Post. Then Semidey put Jahari down face first for a nap on a makeshift bed that she had fashioned from a chair cushion and a blanket, Perok said. She went to sleep, as well.
Unable to move and lying with his face toward the blanket, the baby suffocated. Semidey woke up and found she could not stir him. First-responders pronounced him dead at home, on the 16400 block of Kramer Estate Drive in Woodbridge.
Perok said Semidey, 25, did not mean to kill her child. But prosecutors concluded that the way she treated Jahari was so negligent as to be considered felony child neglect, and they charged her with felony murder — a charge for a death that occurs while a person is committing a felony, in this case the child neglect.
She was arrested Jan. 19. According to court records, she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child neglect and was sentenced to a suspended prison term of five years, which she will not serve if she completes three years of probation.
Avarice died a month earlier, on Oct. 5, 2014. Police said her parents, Adam Jerell Vince Alexander and Jasmyne Alexandria Alexander, had put her in her crib the night before and had not checked on her for 16 hours.
The parents, both 21, had not taken Avarice to a doctor for seven months, even when they noticed she was having difficulty breathing four weeks before her death, investigators said. Instead, the parents first called for help when they found the girl unresponsive in her crib. She also was pronounced dead at home, on the 10200 block of Aqua View Court in Nokesville.
The Alexanders were charged with felony child neglect four days after their daughter’s death. In September, prosecutors indicted them on a count of manslaughter by negligence.
Court records show that Jasmyne Alexander was eventually tried on the less serious charge of child neglect and found not guilty this month. Adam Alexander is scheduled to go to trial on the charges of involuntary manslaughter and child neglect Jan. 26. ||||| NIGHTMARES
A mother was charged with murder after her baby accidentally died while sleeping on his stomach.
After a jarring return to work and some prodding from our famously eager pediatrician, my husband and I have started “cry-it-out” with our 4-month-old son—a brutal, if necessary, method where exhausted parents train their babies to sleep by ignoring their cries. Last night, after our baby cried, then quieted himself several times during a 10-hour stretch, I went to fetch him for a morning feed and felt my throat fall into my stomach.
My baby had wiggled during the night and the fancy swaddle I used to wrap his arms tightly at 7 p.m. was now resting around his neck. My mind flashed with the threat I know loose bedding to be: suffocation, strangulation, death. His eyes peeked out at me through his nearly covered face.
Five years ago, in the middle of another sleepless stretch with my first son, my parenting fail was by choice. I looked at my 2-month-old baby, strong enough to bust himself loose out of my swaddles yet still unable to control the tremors in his hands or the reflex that made him feel like he was falling all the time. And so, I decided to join the number of parents who hide a dark secret: I turned my baby on his belly and let him sleep, which he did, for hours longer than he ever had before.
I revisited these and dozens of other errors I’ve made as a parent this morning—because around the same time I was imagining what might have happened had I not picked up my new baby when I did, The Washington Post reported another mother in Virginia had been charged with murder and child neglect for a mistake that led to the death of her son, Jahari.
Candice Semidey, 25-years-old at the time, was a new mother to a 4-month-old. She fed him, swaddled him, then lay him belly-down on a makeshift bed she fashioned out of a chair cushion and a blanket, according to the Prince William County Police public information officer, Sergeant Jonathan Perok. Semidey went to sleep, but when she woke up, her baby was dead. And according to the Prince William County prosecutor, placing Jahari on his stomach to sleep this way was so negligent it was murder.
Jahari’s death was unintentional, Perok told The Daily Beast. His mother wasn’t under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. Nothing else about her home concerned police or made them think the baby had otherwise been neglected, Perok said.
“These actions, however unintentional, were still deemed neglectful in accordance with the code section for felony murder which states, ‘The killing of one accidentally, contrary to the intention of the parties, while in the prosecution of some felonious act,’” Perok wrote in an email. “The underlying felonious act in this case was the felony child neglect.”
In the criminal complaint, the lead detective wrote that Semidey had acted in a manner “that was so gross, wanton, and culpable” that it showed “a reckless disregard for human life.” The charging documents noted that she had received proper guidance on how to put her son to sleep after his birth.
Semidey pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child neglect in July of 2015, and was given a suspended sentence of five years. She’ll stay out of prison if she completes a three-year supervised probation.
Most parents used to put their babies to sleep on their tummies until the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) began telling them to put their infants to sleep on their backs. In 1994, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development began the “Back to Sleep” campaign, a federally funded push to stem fatalities from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). As a result, unexplained sleep deaths in the U.S. have fallen drastically—by more than 50 percent. Still, around 3,500 infants die unexpectedly while sleeping, from SIDS or accidental suffocation.
But lots of parents still eschew doctors’ advice in exchange for a good night’s sleep. In 1992, about 70 percent of babies slept on their stomachs, according to the National Infant Sleep Position Study. In 2010, that number fell to 13.5 percent. For African-American mothers like Semidey, the rate of stomach sleeping rises to 27.6 percent.
Is this a crime? Clearly it is in Prince William County.
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But to charge a grieving mother for murder, for making a mistake that millions of other mothers make every night, seems like a terrifying overreach. And Sergeant Perok told me the charge against Semidey wasn’t exceptional. “We in Prince William County don’t charge it often, but it’s not unusual,” he said.
The most recent example I could find of a similar charge was in 2010, when a woman was charged with child neglect over the drowning death of her 9-month-old daughter. Julia Sumo had left her daughter in the tub to investigate a burning smell coming from the kitchen. When she returned, her daughter was dead. Sumo was “beside herself with grief” over her “grave mistake,” according to her husband, but the judge said “some recognition has to be given to the fact that a life was lost,” and imposed 60 days of jail time.
Mothers are expected to be hyper-vigilant at all times, and for good reason: Tiny, vulnerable people depend on us. But every single one of us, even the best mother, has her stories. Every mother has felt the lump in her chest that comes with seeing her baby caught in blankets or finding a toddler who slipped away during the one moment she took her eye away in the supermarket. Every mother has had a moment when she realizes how close she has come to tragedy and feels relief that, this time, her baby is safe. ||||| A crying baby woke up a napping nanny who then force-fed the child until the child became unresponsive and died, police said.
Oluremi Oyindasola, 66, of Glenarden, Md., was arrested Tuesday and is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse resulting in death and other related charges after 8-month-old Enita Salubi died in her care, Prince George’s County police announced Wednesday.
A home surveillance system recorded Oyindasola, a live-in nanny, napping on the couch of a Glenarden home when she was disturbed by the crying child, who came up to her in a toddler walker, according to police charging documents.
Oyindasola tried to feed the child while she was still in the walker but was unsuccessful, police said.
[Do you know who’s watching your children?]
Oluremi Oyindasola is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse resulting in death and other related charges after 8-month-old Enita Salubi died in her care. ( Prince George's County Police Department)
Oyindasola then pulled the child from the walker, held the baby around the child’s chest, removed the nipple from the baby’s bottle and “proceeded to pour a large amount of white liquid directly inside the victim’s mouth,” police charging documents state.
For 25 seconds, the child “appeared to squirm and aggressively resist as the defendant continued to force a large amount of liquid inside her mouth,” records state.
After the first bottled was drained, Oyindasola then forced the child to consume the contents of a second bottle.
During the feedings the baby “displayed difficulty breathing and signs of medical distress,” records state.
After the second bottle, the child became unresponsive and at about 4:10 p.m. was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead.
An autopsy revealed white liquid inside the child’s lungs, police said. A medical examiner determined the baby died of asphyxiation and the child’s death was a homicide, police said.
Oyindasola was the only person watching the child when the baby suffered her fatal injuries, police said.
1 of 17 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × 14 shocking crime stories from 2016 View Photos A beloved mayor in Fairfax faced allegations of a meth-for-sex scheme, and a man (successfully) used a “the-stop-smoking-pill-made-me-do-it” defense after shooting his wife. Caption A beloved mayor in Fairfax faced allegations of a meth-for-sex scheme, and a man (successfully) used a “the-stop-smoking-pill-made-me-do-it” defense after shooting his wife. A pastor’s disturbing message to his wife before killing his daughter and himself Police in Maine said former Air Force chaplain Daniel Randall bought a shotgun after completing treatment for substance abuse and drove to the home of his estranged family, where he killed his adult daughter, Claire Randall, pictured here in a 2008 photo, and then himself. A neighbor discovered their bodies at the house in Hebron, Maine. Read the story Gretchen Ertl/Providence Journal via AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
[Day-care worker slammed baby’s head on a table, police say]
Relatives of the baby declined to comment when a reporter knocked on the door of an address listed for both the nanny and the child.
It is unclear whether Oyindasola has an attorney, and her family could not be reached for comment.
Oyindasola is in custody of the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections.
“Babies are defenseless, and what happened to this child is absolutely tragic and heartbreaking,” said Christina Cotterman, a spokeswoman for Prince George’s County Police.
The death of Salubi comes days after authorities in Prince George’s County arrested the parents of an infant who was buried in the woods behind Parkdale High School in Riverdale for a month before police unearthed the child’s remains. Police say the child’s father punched his son and left him in a car for more than 24 hours before digging a shallow grave for him with his mother to hide the crime.
The arrest of Oyindasola also comes less than a week after police charged a day-care center employee in Upper Marlboro with assault and child abuse. The woman slammed a 3-year-old boy’s head on a table, causing a contusion to the right side of his head, police said. ||||| A young Michigan mother has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly leaving her 6-month-old son strapped in a car seat in a hot apartment without food for two days, according to multiple reports.
On Monday, Lovily Johnson, 22, of Wyoming, Michigan, was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in the death of her son, Noah Johnson, according to court records obtained by the Detroit Free Press.
Johnson allegedly told police she intentionally left the child in his car seat in the apartment where they were staying without food or air conditioning, according to court records obtained by local TV station WZZM 13.
Johnson appeared for her arraignment in Wyoming District Court via video. A not guilty plea was entered on her behalf, according to the Free Press.
Wyoming District Court Judge Steven M. Timmers ordered her held without bond pending her next court appearance on Aug. 2.
If convicted of the felony charges, Johnson faces mandatory life in prison.
Johnson has asked for a court-appointed attorney. It is unclear whether she has retained one yet.
Johnson’s other child, a two-year-old daughter, has been placed under the supervision of the state Department of Health and Human Services, according to WZZM.
Allegedly Deprived Baby of ‘Necessities of Life’
According to an arrest affidavit, police were notified after Johnson brought her infant son’s dead body to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital on July 19, MLive reports.
“Upon arrival, Noah was clearly deceased and had been for some time,’’ Wyoming Detective Robert Meredith wrote in a probable cause affidavit obtained by WZZM.
Johnson allegedly told police that Noah had solely been under her care for the last four days, according to the affidavit.
Although she admitted being home “multiple times a day during that time frame, she knowingly and intentionally deprived him of the necessities of life by not feeding him since Monday evening,” Meredith alleged in the affidavit.
During this time, the baby remained buckled in a car seat on the upper floor of Johnson’s apartment with no air conditioning, the affidavit alleges.
During her arraignment, Johnson told the judge she did not understand the charges, WZZM reports.
“Well, let me make it really clear,’’ the judge told her, according to WZZM. “They alleged you killed a young child and that you physically abused it. Does that make sense to you?”
“Yes sir,’’ Johnson answered.
“OK, at least you understand the charges against you,’’ Timmers replied before denying her bond, according to WZZM.
Prior Embezzlement Conviction
Besides facing murder and child abuse charges, Johnson has allegedly violated parole for a 2016 embezzlement conviction and will appear in court for an upcoming probation violation hearing, WZZM reports.
Johnson was charged with embezzlement of less than $200 for an incident in 2016, WZZM reports.
She was placed on probation for eight months and ordered to stay away from Woodland Mall, according to records in Kentwood District Court obtained by WZZM.
In a probation violation bench warrant issued earlier this month, violations include failing to pay fines and court costs, not performing community service and failing to seek and secure a job, court records show. | – On Nov. 8, 2014, Virginia 25-year-old Candice Christa Semidey fed her 4-month-old son, Jahari Jones, swaddled him, and put him to bed. She, too, went to sleep, only to wake up and find Jahari dead. Semidey was charged with felony murder. Why? Because she wrapped Jahari in a blanket and placed him to sleep on his stomach on what the Washington Post describes as "a makeshift bed ... fashioned from a chair cushion and a blanket." Jahari suffocated, unable to move his face away from the blanket. Police determined that Semidey didn't intend to kill the little boy, but prosecutors decided she was neglectful of safe sleep guidelines and thus should be charged. Though she was charged in January, the case was not reported until this week, as the Post tallied up the number of homicides in the Washington, DC, region in 2015. As the Prince William County police public information officer explains to the Daily Beast, nothing else in the home caused police to believe Jahari had been neglected, and Semidey was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. But, as the charging documents state, she had gotten proper guidance on safe sleep guidelines (which include putting a baby down on his or her back to sleep, on a firm surface without blankets, and not swaddling a baby who is placed on his stomach), and police concluded that her conduct "was so gross, wanton, and culpable" that it showed "a reckless disregard for human life." The officer tells the New York Daily News, "This particular death isn't just about the child being placed on his stomach, but the totality of the circumstances." Semidey pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child neglect; she must serve three years of probation to avoid going to jail for five years. (In Missouri, parents were charged in their toddler's space heater death.) |
(CNN) Senator Lindsey Graham is ending his presidential campaign, he told CNN during an exclusive interview airing Monday.
"I'm going to suspend my campaign. I'm not going to suspend my desire to help the country," the South Carolina senator said in a wide-ranging and candid discussion in which he acknowledged: "I've hit a wall here."
He made the official announcement in an email to supporters and Youtube video posted Monday morning.
Graham is known for his quick wit and famous for his one-liners (just ask Princess Buttercup about his retort from the last debate), but he was sober, serious and emotional as he described his decision to leave the race just weeks before the voting begins.
One thing is clear: Graham still wants his voice heard on the direction his party is headed, especially with regard to the Middle East.
"Here's what I predict. I think the nominee of our party is going to adopt my plan when it comes time to articulate how to destroy ISIL," he said. "We've fallen short here, but the fight continues. To those who are doing the fighting, I want to be your voice. To those in the Republican Party who want to win, check my plan out. Hillary, if you get to be President, I'll help you where I can. I hope you're not. But if you are, I'll be there to help you win a war we can't afford to lose."
Graham's decision -- which leaves a field of 12 main GOP candidates (CNN had 13 at its last Republican debate, including Graham) -- comes just days after the CNN Republican Presidential Debate in Las Vegas, where he was widely viewed as dominating the undercard debate.
"Four months ago at the very first debate, I said that any candidate who did not understand that we need more troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria to defeat ISIL was not ready to be Commander in Chief," Graham wrote in the email. "At the time, no one stepped forward to join me. Today, most of my fellow candidates have come to recognize this is what's needed to secure our homeland."
He added, "While we have run a campaign that has made a real difference, I have concluded this is not my time."
JUST WATCHED Graham: 'If you want to win this war, follow me' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Graham: 'If you want to win this war, follow me' 01:35
"My biggest problem is a lot of people like what I say, but not a lot of people hear it," he told CNN. "I don't want to be the undercard voice. I cannot tell you how frustrating it has been to have spent all this time and effort preparing myself to be Commander-in-Chief and to be put at the 'kiddie table'." His advice to his party as it relates to the debate format: "Never do this again."
Graham's campaign strategy had been laser-focused on New Hampshire: Place high in that first primary state on February 9 and use the momentum to propel him forward. So why not hold out until then?
Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Click through to see highlights from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's political career: Hide Caption 1 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham; Sir Elton John, center; and filmmaker and John's husband, David Furnish, pose after testimony at a U.S. Senate hearing on the global fight against AIDS on May 6, 2015. Graham and Democratic Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont hosted John as part of their bipartisan effort to combat HIV infection. Hide Caption 2 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham rushes to the Senate chamber to vote on an attempt to override U.S. President Barack Obama's veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline legislation March 4, 2015. Graham was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002 and was re-elected in 2008 and 2014. Hide Caption 3 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham listens to testimony during a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting on national security strategy on January 27, 2015. According to his website , Graham continues to serve his country in the U.S. Air Force Reserves as a senior individual mobilization augmentee to the judge advocate general. Hide Caption 4 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham arrives for a closed briefing of the Armed Services Committee on July 30, 2014. Before serving in the Senate, Graham was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994. Hide Caption 5 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham talks to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, before a news conference on Capitol Hill on July 24, 2014. Hide Caption 6 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, right, listen as President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address on January 28, 2014. Graham was in the U.S. Air Force and logged six-and-a-half years of service on active duty as an Air Force lawyer. Hide Caption 7 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham holds a news conference on Benghazi, Libya, at the U.S. Capitol on October 30, 2013. From left, he is flanked by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona; Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah; and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Graham has been an outspoken critic of how the Obama administration has handled the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic, in which four U.S. citizens died. Hide Caption 8 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, meets with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Graham on June 30, 2013, in Jerusalem. Hide Caption 9 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career McCain, left, and Graham speak during a news conference about Benghazi on February 14, 2013, on Capitol Hill. Hide Caption 10 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham talks with reporters before heading into the Senate Republican Caucus policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol May 8, 2012. Hide Caption 11 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham speaks to reporters after a news conference about his Social Security reform plan at the U.S. Capitol on April 13, 2011. Hide Caption 12 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career Graham, left, and McCain call on participants during a health care town hall meeting on September 14, 2009 at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. According to his website, Graham is a native South Carolinian and grew up in a blue collar family in the small town of Central, where his parents ran a restaurant and pool hall. Hide Caption 13 of 14 Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career U.S. President George W. Bush, left, stands with Graham on the steps of Air Force One at the airport in Greenville, South Carolina, in March 2002. Hide Caption 14 of 14
"I'm not trying to hold out. I'm trying to make a difference. I think the best way for me to make a difference is to think about helping somebody else," he said.
In another key primary state, South Carolina, he faces a Monday December 21 deadline to keep his name off the ballot, potentially helping Graham avoid an embarrassing showing in his home state. Asked whether that fueled his decision to drop out now, Graham said no and added that he'd risk it if he saw a way to turn things around.
"At the end of the day, I'm not going to be competitive in my state," he said. "I'm not going to be competitive outside my state."
Asked who he would endorse, Graham demurred. "I'm going to take some time with my family. Going to think about what I should do. I have no intention of endorsing anyone right now." Later, he said that if he were to endorse, he's looking for the candidate best fit to be Commander-in-Chief and also who can win.
JUST WATCHED Graham: Trump is a 'race-baiting, xenophobic' bigot Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Graham: Trump is a 'race-baiting, xenophobic' bigot 03:34
As for the candidate Graham has traded barbs with the most since he entered the race in early June, Graham struck a markedly softer tone toward Donald Trump."You're doing really well. I'm impressed with your campaign," he said.
Graham -- who recently urged Republicans to tell Trump to " go to hell " -- also did not rule out accepting a Cabinet position in a Trump administration in the future.
But he did offer these parting words for Trump: "We're at war. A lot of men and women are at risk overseas. Watch what you say over here."
"You may wind up being the nominee of the Republican Party," he added. "The Republican Party's future may be in your hands. The future of the country will be in your hands if you're President of the United States. This is not a game show. This is not a reality show."
Candidly, Graham said he has a lot of regrets looking back at his campaign. "I regret that I haven't been a better candidate. I regret that I never got on the big stage. I regret that I didn't make it to the final group. But that's just about me. I have no regrets about running for President," he said. "It has been the joy of my life to run for President of the United States." ||||| Lindsey Graham channels his inner comedian and Howard Beale with bonkers "SNL" bit: "How am I losing to these people?" Carson "tried to kill someone at 14," Donald Trump is "crazy as hell," and Graham can't understand how he's losing
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is not going to be the next president, but perhaps what he's really running for is a permanent seat on the "Morning Joe" panel.
In a frankly bonkers interview on MSNBC this morning -- filled with biting takedowns of the rest of the GOP field, especially Ben Carson, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, but also what almost seemed like a stand-up routine complete with classic "Saturday Night Live" references -- Graham spoke with the kind of honesty you're only allowed when you're polling at 1 percent and on Monday morning basic cable.
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For his first joke, he busted out a Bernie Sanders Goes To Moscow routine. "Can I give you my take on this race?" he asked. "You have two front-runners on the Democratic side, right? The No. 2 went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon -- and I don't think he ever came back. The leader felt that she was flat broke after her husband was president for eight years -- and that's maybe why they stole the China."
Then he turned to Donald Trump and Ben Carson, saying "on our side, you've got the No. 2 guy [saying he] tried to kill someone at 14 and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people?"
"How am I losing to these people?" alludes, of course, to the 1988 "SNL" debate parody in which a moderator turns to Michael Dukakis after a George Bush points-of-light word-collage and asks for his reaction. Dukakis is in disbelief:
Graham was also asked about abortion. "Is it possible for a Republican to get elected president if they have the position Marco Rubio has on abortion, which is to say no exceptions, even in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother?" wondered John Heilemann.
The senator replied that he is "pro-life," but that he "would never tell a woman who has been raped she's got to carry the child of the rapist. Eighty-three percent of the American people feel like that goes too far. So if you would veto a bill that had an exception for rape or incest -- you know, I appreciate your passion for the pro-life issue, but you're outside of the main stream and you cannot get elected. Anybody with that position will get creamed. I think you lose 350 electoral votes.
Watch the entire interview below via MSNBC. | – One of the mainstays of the undercard GOP debates is out: Lindsey Graham tells CNN that he's suspending his campaign for president. "I've hit a wall here," says the conservative South Carolina senator. Graham has been consistently polling near the bottom of the pack and hasn't qualified for the main debate once. The likely key factor: Monday was the deadline for Graham to remove his name from the primary ballot in South Carolina, notes Politico. Being able to do so allows him to avoid the possibility of an embarrassing home-state loss. "Here's what I predict. I think the nominee of our party is going to adopt my plan when it comes time to articulate how to destroy ISIL," says Graham. "To those in the Republican Party who want to win, check my plan out. Hillary, if you get to be president, I'll help you where I can. I hope you're not. But if you are, I'll be there to help you win a war we can't afford to lose." An email to supporters was expected to go out later Monday. |
(CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for legal same-sex marriages in five more states.
The court refused to hear cases from the states -- Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin -- seeking to keep their same-sex marriage bans in place.
Couples in some of those states began applying for marriage licenses just hours after the Supreme Court's decision.
CNN affiliate WVEC in Norfolk, Virginia, captured a same-sex couple who rushed to fill out their marriage license documents. Officials in Virginia began issuing same-sex marriage licenses at 1 p.m. Monday.
Tony London and Tim Bostic, two plaintiffs in Norfolk, said they were ready to receive their marriage license Monday afternoon.
"It was a pleasure suing you," London joked when a clerk handed him the license, a WVEC reporter tweeted, capturing the two locked in a kiss.
In Richmond, Lindsey Oliver and Nicole Pries left work and drove to the John Marshall Courthouse, where they were the first same-sex couple to be married.
"It's a great thing," Oliver told CNN affiliate WTVR. "There's lot of things that need to be done in Virginia to still make gays equal. This is one step and we're glad to be a part of it."
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said all of the state's 54 county clerks must start issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
A similar order could be issued by day's end for Indiana and Wisconsin.
"Supreme Court" trended on Twitter with dozens of people weighing in -- and trying to figure out exactly what the high court's move meant.
Experts say its refusal to hear the cases from those five states also means that six more states -- Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas, West Virginia, and Wyoming -- could soon have to lift their bans on same-sex marriage, because they are covered by the same circuit appeals courts that initially struck down the prohibitions.
Once that happens, the number of states permitting same-sex marriage would jump from 19 to 30.
At issue is whether gay and lesbian couples in all 50 states have the same equal protection or due process right to marry that opposite-sex couples have.
The Family Research Council, a conservative public policy and lobbying organization, said voters were having their rights infringed.
"Unfortunately, by failing to take up these marriage cases, the high court will allow rogue lower court judges who have ignored history and true legal precedent to silence the elected representatives of the people and the voice of the people themselves by overturning state provisions on marriage," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said.
In Utah, just hours after word from the high court came down, Gov. Gary Herbert said at a press conference that he felt "surprised" and "disappointed" that there was no "finality" on the issue of same-sex marriage. The state would comply with Monday's order, he said, and same-sex marriages would move forward.
"Regardless of your personal beliefs," he urged, "... please treat each other with respect and with kindness as we transition through this new law."
The court's action does not mean there won't eventually be a final ruling on the constitutional questions -- many court observers fully expect a landmark decision in the next year or two -- but it does signal the justices are not ready to jump into the politically charged debate right now.
The high court's move surprised many observers. Advocates on both sides of the issue had wanted the court to offer a definitive, binding ruling on key constitutional questions.
"The question of whether same-sex marriage bans are constitutional is a historic issue, under the Constitution and for the Roberts Court," said Thomas Goldstein, publisher of SCOTUSblog.com and a respected Washington attorney. "It's hard to imagine a situation where judges are going to have more power to define the social and family relationships of the country." He's referring to Chief Justice John Roberts.
Both sides passionate
Same-sex marriage is already legal in the District of Columbia and 19 U.S states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
A Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage would essentially end a patchwork of state laws -- some that allow it, some that prohibit it, and a few that allow protections short of marriage, such as civil unions and domestic partnerships.
Marriage equality supporters cheered the high court's Monday order.
"Today's decision by the Supreme Court leaves in force five favorable marriage rulings reached in three federal appellate courts, ensuring the freedom to marry for millions more Americans around the country," said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry.
"But we are one country, with one Constitution, and the court's delay in affirming the freedom to marry nationwide prolongs the patchwork of state-to-state discrimination and the harms and indignity that the denial of marriage still inflicts on too many couples in too many places."
The Supreme Court hurried to schedule the appeals from the five states for its closed-door conference, even before all the legal briefs had been filed. But the justices offered no explanation of why they are not ready to resolve the issue.
Some conservative activists say the high court should stay out of same-sex marriage issues.
"When the court on such an issue -- where there are very strong opinions on both sides, and a huge issue of social change in our country -- steps in and makes it into a constitutional issue, it makes the justices look significantly more political in the eyes of the American people," said Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network.
"It would cast doubt on the legitimacy of the court ... by imposing one type of solution for the entire nation, instead of leaving it in the hands of the states to decide how they want to address this issue."
Many supporters of "traditional" marriage privately say preserving an inflexible one-man/one-woman definition of wedlock nationwide would not be realistic moving forward, and that a divided bloc of states upholding the status quo may be the best possible scenario. But all that hinges on what the Supreme Court does.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, the first state attorney general to argue successfully at the district and appeals level for a marriage ban to be struck down, said "a new day has dawned, and the rights guaranteed by our Constitution are shining through."
Same-sex precedent
A federal appeals court in August took just nine days after intensive oral arguments to issue its sweeping conclusion that voter-approved same-sex marriage bans in Indiana and Wisconsin were unacceptably discriminatory. And state leaders then took just five days to formally ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
Even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently hinted that a "Why wait?" attitude may predominate.
"I think the court will not do what they did in the old days when they continually ducked the issue of miscegenation," she told The Associated Press in July, referring to interracial marriage, a ban on which was not struck down by the high court until 1967. "If a case is properly before the court, they will take it."
It takes just four of the nine justices to put such petitions on the docket -- but five, of course, to ultimately prevail on the merits.
State and federal judges in the past year have ruled 39 times in favor of the expanded marriage right, while two have upheld existing laws. All this follows what the Supreme Court in 2013 said peripherally on the issue.
Fifteen months ago, the justices cleared the way for same-sex marriages in California to resume after it ruled private parties did not have "standing" to defend a voter-approved ballot measure barring gay and lesbian couples from state-sanctioned wedlock.
More importantly, the high court also rejected parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in its 5-4 "Windsor" decision, citing equal protection guarantees to conclude same-sex spouses legally married in a state may receive federal benefits, such as tax breaks.
That federal question now morphs into the higher-stakes state jurisdiction, where marriage laws have traditionally been controlled, and where the equal protection issues will ultimately be resolved.
By CNN's count, various individuals and gay rights groups have launched more than 80 pending marriage equality lawsuits in all 31 states with current bans. A Supreme Court review would put all that litigation on hold.
However, the nine justices had complete discretion to stand on the sidelines for now and wait for a majority of these state battles to play out, or for a federal appeals court to uphold a ban.
CNN's Steve Almasy contributed to this story. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court turned away appeals Monday from five states seeking to prohibit same-sex marriages, paving the way for an immediate expansion of gay and lesbian unions.
The justices on Monday did not comment in rejecting appeals from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. No other state cases were currently pending with the high court, but the justices stopped short of resolving for now the question of same-sex marriage nationwide.
The court's order immediately ends delays on marriage in those states. Couples in six other states — Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming — should be able to get married in short order. Those states would be bound by the same appellate rulings that were put on hold pending the Supreme Court's review.
That would make same-sex marriage legal in 30 states and the District of Columbia.
Experts and advocates on both sides of the issue believed the justices would step in and decide gay marriage cases this term.
The justices have an obligation to settle an issue of such national importance, not abdicate that responsibility to lower court judges, the advocates said. Opting out of hearing the cases leaves those lower court rulings in place.
Two other appeals courts, in Cincinnati and San Francisco, could issue decisions any time in same-sex marriage cases. Judges in the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit who are weighing pro-gay marriage rulings in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, appeared more likely to rule in favor of state bans than did the 9th Circuit judges in San Francisco, who are considering Idaho and Nevada restrictions on marriage.
It takes just four of the nine justices to vote to hear a case, but it takes a majority of at least five for an eventual ruling. Monday's opaque order did not indicate how the justices voted on whether to hear the appeals. ||||| The Supreme Court turned away appeals this week that effectively raised the number of states allowing the practice from 19 to 30. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court rejected bans in Idaho and Nevada, which would become the 31st and 32nd states with same-sex marriage if the ruling is not put on hold for the Supreme Court to consider.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, right, leads a renewal of vows for former plaintiffs Mary Townley, second from left, and her partner Carol Schall, second from right, outside the John Marshall... (Associated Press)
Deb Monicken and Sue Kattas held their marriage license, which they received this summer during a brief lifting of the same-sex marriage ban in June, at the courthouse in Hudson, Wis., Monday, Oct. 6,... (Associated Press)
Kenny Wright, left, and Bo Bass talk to members of the media after they applied for their marriage license at the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City, Monday, Oct. 6 2014. They were the 3rd same... (Associated Press)
FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, file photo, plaintiffs, Moudi Sbeity, left, and his partner Derek Kitchen kiss during a gay marriage rally, in Salt Lake City. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision not... (Associated Press)
Plaintiff's Kody Partridge, right, and her wife, Laurie Wood, celebrate during a gay marriage rally Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, in Salt Lake City. Same-sex couples in Utah are celebrating after the U.S. Supreme... (Associated Press)
FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2014, file photo, plaintiffs Matthew Barraza, left, looks on as his husband Tony Milner, right, holds their son Jesse, 4, following a American Civil Liberties Union news conference,... (Associated Press)
Plaintiff Kody Partridge hoists Peggy Tomsic, attorney for the six people who brought the lawsuit against the Utah's gay marriage ban, during a gay marriage rally Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, in Salt Lake City.... (Associated Press)
People gather during a gay marriage rally Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, in Salt Lake City. Same-sex couples in Utah were celebrating after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for gay marriages to... (Associated Press)
Nicole Pries, center left, and Lindsey Oliver of Richmond kiss each other as they celebrate their same-sex marriage outside of the John Marshall Courts Building in Richmond, Va., on Monday, Oct. 6, 2014.... (Associated Press)
Here's the status of gay marriage in all 50 states:
___
WHERE GAY MARRIAGE IS STILL NOT LEGAL AND CASES ARE PENDING:
— ALABAMA — Lawsuits challenging the ban have been filed in each of the state's three federal court districts, but judges have yet to rule. The state is defending the prohibition.
— ALASKA — A federal judge is hearing arguments Friday in a case filed by five couples challenging the state's ban.
— ARIZONA — Lawyers in two pending federal lawsuits that challenge Arizona's same-sex marriage ban are expected to urge the judge overseeing them to take note of a ruling Tuesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and immediately strike down the ban. The appeals court threw out gay marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada on constitutional grounds. The same issues have been raised by gay couples in Arizona's lawsuits.
— ARKANSAS — A state judge in May struck down the state's ban. The state Supreme Court brought marriages to a halt and is weighing state officials' appeal. Same-sex couples are also suing the state in federal court.
— FLORIDA — A federal judge declared the state's ban unconstitutional in mid-August, joining state judges in four counties. He issued a stay delaying the effect of his order, meaning no marriage licenses would be issued immediately issued for gay couples.
— GEORGIA — A lawsuit challenging the state's ban was filed in federal court in Atlanta in April. The state wants to dismiss the suit, but the judge has not ruled. Lawyers for the ban's challengers say the U.S. Supreme Court's denial to consider other cases supports their arguments.
— KENTUCKY — Two Kentucky cases were among six from four states heard in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Aug. 6. Rulings are pending on recognition of out-of-state marriages, as well as the ban on marriages within the state.
— LOUISIANA — A federal judge's ruling in September upholding the state's ban has been appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A state judge ruled in a separate case that the ban is unconstitutional, a ruling that has been suspended while the state attorney general appeals to the state Supreme Court.
— MICHIGAN — The state's ban was overturned by a federal judge in March following a rare trial that mostly focused on the impact on children. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati heard arguments Aug. 6, and a ruling is pending.
— MISSISSIPPI — The state Supreme Court has been asked to hear arguments on a woman's effort to get her marriage in another state recognized in Mississippi for purposes of getting a divorce.
— MISSOURI — The state attorney general said Monday he wouldn't appeal a state court order that Missouri recognize marriages from in other states. But two other cases are pending: A federal challenge in Kansas City and one in St. Louis that focuses on city officials who issued licenses to four couples to trigger a legal test.
— MONTANA — Four couples challenged the state's ban in a lawsuit that was filed in May and is pending in U.S. District Court. A Montana ACLU official said Tuesday's decision by the 9th Circuit to strike down Idaho's ban on gay marriage likely means Montana's voter-approved ban also will be declared unconstitutional. Republican Attorney General Tim Fox is reviewing the decision, a spokesman said.
— NEBRASKA — The state's ban remains intact. A federal judge struck it down in 2005, but an appeals court reversed the decision. Last year, a state judge refused to grant a divorce to two women who wed in Iowa in 2009. The state Supreme Court dismissed the case in June on procedural grounds.
— NORTH DAKOTA — Seven couples sued in June over the state's ban; a U.S. district judge now must decide whether to rule or hear oral arguments.
— OHIO — Two Ohio cases were argued Aug. 6 in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and a ruling is pending. In one, two gay men whose spouses were dying sued to have their out-of-state marriages recognized on their spouses' death certificates. In the other, four couples sued to have both spouses listed on their children's birth certificates.
— SOUTH DAKOTA — Six couples sued in May over the state's ban, and arguments are being scheduled in U.S. district court on the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit; their attorney pledges to appeal to a federal circuit appeals court if they lose.
— TENNESSEE — The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Aug. 6 on whether Tennessee's refusal to recognize a valid marriage from another state is constitutional. A ruling is pending.
— TEXAS — A federal judge declared the state's ban unconstitutional, issuing a preliminary injunction. The state is appealing to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which is soon expected to set a date for arguments.
__
WHERE GAY MARRIAGE IS LEGAL:
— CALIFORNIA (2013)
— COLORADO (Oct. 6, 2014) — The state attorney general on Tuesday ordered all the state's counties to issue licenses now that the state Supreme Court has lifted previous orders barring that.
— CONNECTICUT (2008)
— DELAWARE (2013)
— HAWAII (2013) — The Legislature legalized gay marriage last year, and couples continue to marry. An appeal is pending on a federal ruling that upheld Hawaii's previous ban. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hasn't specifically ruled on Hawaii, although on Tuesday it rejected bans in Idaho and Nevada after hearing arguments from all three states.
— IDAHO — The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected appeals by state officials to retain the state's ban.
— ILLINOIS (June 2014)
— INDIANA (Oct. 6, 2014) — The state attorney general's office ordered county clerks across the state to issue licenses. Republican Gov. Mike Pence said his administration will follow the court's decisions even though he remains committed to traditional marriage.
— IOWA (2009)
— KANSAS (Oct. 6, 2014) — The American Civil Liberties Union says the Supreme Court decision in the 10th Circuit cases affects Kansas because it's in that circuit; the group plans to seek a federal court ruling to block Kansas' constitutional ban on gay marriage. Gov. Sam Brownback was defiant, saying he swore to uphold the constitution, and some same-sex couples who applied for marriage licenses were turned away.
— MAINE (2012)
— MARYLAND (2013)
— MASSACHUSETTS (2004) — The first state to legalize gay marriage.
— MINNESOTA (2013)
— NEVADA — The 9th Circuit on Tuesday rejected the state's ban. Officials in the Clark County clerk's office say the marriage license bureau in Las Vegas will begin accepting license applications Wednesday from same-sex couples.
— NEW HAMPSHIRE (2010)
— NEW JERSEY (2013)
— NEW MEXICO (2013)
— NEW YORK (2011)
— NORTH CAROLINA (Oct. 6, 2014) — The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina says it will seek an immediate ruling in federal court overturning the state's ban. The state attorney general has previously said he wouldn't challenge such a ruling.
— OKLAHOMA (Oct. 6, 2014) — Tulsa County issued a marriage license Monday to Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin, the couple who successfully challenged the state's ban. Several other counties also issued licenses.
— OREGON (May 2014)
— PENNSYLVANIA (May 2014)
— RHODE ISLAND (2013)
— SOUTH CAROLINA (Oct. 6, 2014) — A lawyer for a gay couple seeking to overturn the state's ban on gay marriage said she will ask a federal judge to immediately rule in their favor. The attorney general said he will continue to fight to uphold the ban.
— UTAH (Oct. 6, 2014) — A handful of same-sex weddings occurred in Salt Lake County after the governor directed state agencies to recognize the marriages Monday. The state said Tuesday it will also drop an appeal in which it sought not to recognize out-of-state marriages.
— VERMONT (2009) — The first state to offer civil unions, in 2001.
— VIRGINIA (Oct. 6, 2014) — A day after the first same-sex couples wed, the governor ordered state agencies to comply with the new terrain, including allowing gay employees to add spouses and dependents to their health insurance.
— WASHINGTON, D.C. (2010)
— WASHINGTON STATE (2012)
— WEST VIRGINIA (Oct. 6, 2014) — A federal judge lifted his hold on a lawsuit challenging the state's ban.
— WISCONSIN (Oct. 6, 2014) — County clerks are accepting applications for licenses which, by state law, can't be issued until after a five-day waiting period.
— WYOMING (Oct. 6, 2014) — Lingering uncertainty over whether gay marriage is allowed in Wyoming prevented same-sex couples from marrying there Tuesday, prompting four couples to file a federal lawsuit a day after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld gay marriage by refusing to hear appeals on the issue. Those appeals included one from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Wyoming. | – This week's flurry of court rulings made it a little tricky to keep track of which states allow gay marriage. The upshot is that the Supreme Court's moves added seven more states to the yes column: Idaho, Indiana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin, bringing the total number of states that allow same-sex marriage to 26, reports the New York Times. (That doesn't include DC, which also allows them.) But things gets a little complicated because more states were affected by the rulings, those that happened to be in the same federal circuits as other states that appealed. The Times' take: "The legal ripple effects from the various appeals court rulings the Supreme Court tacitly sustained should soon raise that number to 35." Reuters, too, goes with that number, reporting that legal weddings for gay couples could soon be "extended to 35 states." AP, meanwhile, settles for an answer of "about 30, give or take." It will take a little time for those "legal ripple effects" to play out. In North Carolina, for instance, a federal district judge struck down the state's ban on gay marriage yesterday, and couples immediately started getting married, reports AP in a separate story. North Carolina is in the same district covered by Virginia, and when the Supreme Court decided this week that it wouldn't hear an appeal of a ruling that struck down Virginia's ban as unconstitutional, that paved the way for yesterday's ruling in Raleigh. "Even before this I was happy, but I think now that it's on paper and it's legal—it's a commitment between two people," says a male sheriff's deputy in Wake County who wed a fellow male deputy. |
Atlanta (CNN) -- A medical plane whisked an American infected with Ebola from Liberia to Georgia on Saturday, the latest leg of a race to save the first known patient with the deadly virus to be treated on U.S. soil.
Shortly after the plane landed, an ambulance rushed Dr. Kent Brantly from Dobbins Air Reserve Base to Atlanta's Emory University Hospital. He's one of two Americans sickened by the deadly viral hemorrhagic fever last month while on the front lines of a major outbreak in West Africa.
Video from Emory showed someone in a white, full-body protective suit helping a similarly clad person emerge from the ambulance and walk into the hospital.
Hospital visitor: 'Oh, my God'
Emory has said it will treat Brantly, 33, and fellow missionary Nancy Writebol in an isolation unit.
The plane equipped with an isolation unit can only transport one patient at a time. It will now pick up Writebol in Liberia and bring her to Georgia early next week, said Todd Shearer, spokesman for Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, with which both Americans were affiliated.
Brantly's wife, parents and sister cried when they saw him on CNN walking from the ambulance into the hospital, another representative of Samaritan's Purse said on condition of anonymity. His wife, Amber, later said she was relieved that her husband was back in the United States.
"I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S.," she said in statement. "I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital."
Brantly's wife visited with him from behind a glass wall for about 45 minutes, the Samaritan's Purse representative said. Kent Brantly was described as "in great spirits and so grateful."
Tennessee doctor who worked with Ebola patients quarantines self
Brantly, who has ties to Texas and Indiana, and Writebol, of North Carolina, became sick while caring for Ebola patients in Liberia, one of three West African nations hit by an outbreak.
Treatment in isolation
This will be the first human Ebola test for a U.S. medical facility. The patients will be treated at an isolated unit where precautions are in place to keep such deadly diseases from spreading, unit supervisor Dr. Bruce Ribner said.
Everything that comes in and out of the unit will be controlled, Ribner said, and it will have windows and an intercom for staff to interact with patients without being in the room.
Ebola is not airborne or waterborne, and spreads through contact with organs and bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, urine and other secretions of infected people.
There is no FDA-approved treatment for Ebola, and Emory will use what Ribner calls "supportive care." That means carefully tracking a patient's symptoms, vital signs and organ function and taking measures, such as blood transfusions and dialysis, to keep patients stable.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Ebola will go global
"We just have to keep the patient alive long enough in order for the body to control this infection," Ribner said.
Writebol was given an experimental serum this week, Samaritan's Purse said, though its purpose and effects weren't immediately publicized.
The Ebola virus causes viral hemorrhagic fever, which refers to a group of viruses that affect multiple organ systems in the body and are often accompanied by bleeding.
Early symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat. They later progress to vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function -- and sometimes internal and external bleeding.
Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA, a Christian mission organization with which Writebol also is linked, said Saturday that both were seriously ill but stable.
"My last report (on Brantly) was yesterday. ... He was ambulatory, being able to talk, converse, and get up. So that was encouraging," Johnson said Saturday morning.
On Writebol, Johnson said: "She's responsive, and we're encouraged at how she's doing."
Emory's isolation unit was created with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based down the road. It aims to optimize care for those with highly infectious diseases and is one of four U.S. institutions capable of providing such treatment.
The World Health Organization reports that the outbreak in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea is believed to have infected 1,323 people and killed more than 729 this year, as of July 27.
Fear, conspiracy theories
As officials worked to bring the two Americans home, the idea of intentionally bringing Ebola into the United States has rattled many nerves.
"The road to hell was paved with good intentions," wrote one person, using the hashtag #EbolaOutbreak. "What do we say to our kids When they get sick& die?"
On the website of conspiracy talker Alex Jones, who has long purported the CDC could unleash a pandemic and the government would react by instituting authoritarian rule, the news was a feast of fodder.
"Feds would exercise draconian emergency powers if Ebola hits U.S.," a headline read on infowars.com.
Ribner repeatedly downplayed the risk for anyone who will be in contact with Brantly or Writebol.
"We have two individuals who are critically ill, and we feel that we owe them the right to receive the best medical care," Ribner said.
The fight against Ebola
All concerns about the United States pale in comparison to the harsh reality in the hardest-hit areas.
Even in the best-case scenario, it could take three to six months to stem the epidemic in West Africa, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC.
There's no vaccine, though one is in the works.
There's no standardized treatment for the disease, either; the most common approach is to support organ functions and keep up bodily fluids such as blood and water long enough for the body to fight off the infection.
The National Institutes of Health plans to begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine in people as early as September. Tests on primates have been successful.
So far, the outbreak is confined to West Africa. Although infections are dropping in Guinea, they are on the rise in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In the 1990s, an Ebola strain tied to monkeys -- Ebola-Reston -- was found in the United States, but no humans got sick from it, according to the CDC.
Experts: U.S. health care system well-prepared for Ebola
CNN's Chelsea J. Carter, Greg Botelho, Deanna Hackney, John Branch, Danielle Dellorto, Barbara Starr, MaryLynn Ryan and Ben Brumfield contributed to this report. ||||| Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly have been cured of the Ebola virus and released from Emory Hospital in Atlanta.
Brantly, 33, called his recovery "a miraculous day."
"I am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and reunited with my family," he said.
He also told a news conference at Emory Hospital that "God saved my life."
Both patients were given blood and urine tests to determine whether they still had the virus, Emory doctors said in a statement released this morning.
What's Happening Now in the Ebola Outbreak
American Doctor With Ebola Received Experimental Antibody Serum Before U.S. Arrival
How Did Ebola Patients Get Experimental Serum?
"After a rigorous course of treatment and testing we have determined...that (Brantly) has recovered from the Ebola virus disease and he can return to his family, to his community, and to his life without any public health concerns," Dr. Bruce Ribner, director of Emory’s Infectious Disease Unit, said today.
Brantly said that when Writebol left the hospital on Tuesday, she asked him to speak on her behalf to the public and express gratitude for prayers on her behalf.
"When she walked out of the room, all she could say was ‘To God be the glory,’" Brantly recalled. "Nancy and (her husband) David are now spending some much needed time together."
Writebol's husband said in the statement that his wife left the hospital in a "significantly weakened condition."
"We are tremendously pleased with Dr. Brantly and Mrs. Writebol's recovery," Ribner said. "All of us who have worked with them have been impressed by their courage and determination. Their hope and faith have been an inspiration to all of us."
Ribner emphasized that though there is public fear and anxiety about Ebola, there is no threat to public health with the patients' release.
He also said that the decision to bring Brantly and Writebol to America for treatment would help push forward the research and knowledge about how to treat Ebola wherever it is contracted.
Brantly contracted the deadly virus while working in a Liberian Ebola ward with the aid agency Samaritan’s Purse. He was evacuated to the U.S. earlier this month along with Writebol.
"I never imagined myself in this position," Brantley said. "We treated out first Ebola patient (in Liberia) in June. When she arrived we were ready."
"On Wednesday, July 23, I woke up feeling under the weather and then my life took an unexpected turn as I was diagnosed with Ebola. As I lay in my bed in Liberia for nine days, getting sicker each day, I prayed God would help be more faithful in even in my illness, and that in my illness or even death he would glorified," Brantly said.
Brantly is the first-ever Ebola patient to be treated in the U.S. and the first human to receive the experimental serum known as ZMapp.
According to reports, Brantly’s condition deteriorated so quickly that doctors in Africa decided to give him the drug in a last-ditch effort to save him.
Courtesy Samaritans Purse PHOTO: Dr. Kent Brantly speaks with a worker outside the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia
Brantly’s condition started to improve dramatically within an hour after getting the serum, according to Samaritan’s Purse, but it’s unclear if the improvement was directly related to the medication. After his health stabilized, Brantly was evacuated on a specially outfitted plane to Atlanta in early August to the hospital isolation ward. ||||| CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Dr. Kent Brantly arrived in Atlanta Saturday afternoon as the first of two patients with Ebola to be treated at Emory University hospital. VPC
Kent Brantly works at an Ebola treatment clinic in Foya, Liberia, on June 23. (Photo: Samaritan's Purse)
A second American stricken with the Ebola virus is expected to return to the USA Tuesday, three days after a doctor being treated for the disease arrived at an Atlanta hospital for intensive care.
Nancy Writebol, a medical missionary aiding in the treatment of Ebola victims in Liberia, is scheduled to leave that African nation around 1 a.m. Tuesday on a specially equipped medical evacuation plane, Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown said, according to the Associated Press.
Kent Brantly, the American doctor transported to Atlanta Saturday, "seems to be improving," the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday.
Brantly is being treated in a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after arriving Saturday at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia. It's the first time anyone infected with the deadly virus has been brought into the country.
"We're hoping he'll continue to improve," Dr. Tom Frieden told CBS' Face the Nation. "But Ebola is such a scary disease because it's so deadly. I can't predict the future for individual patients."
Brantly and Writebol were serving in Liberia as medical missionaries when they became infected with the virus, which has killed 729 people and sickened more than 1,300 the West African nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Frieden has said his agency received "nasty" e-mails and at least 100 calls from people questioning why the sick aid workers should be let into the USA. Physicians are confident, however, that the two Americans can be treated without putting the public in danger.
(Photo: AP)
The virus is spread through direct contact with blood, urine, saliva and other bodily fluids from an infected person. It is not spread through the air.
"I don't think it's in the cards that we would have widespread Ebola," Frieden said. He said the virus spreads in African hospitals where there isn't infection control and in burial rituals where people touch the bodies of Ebola victims. That won't happen here, he said.
"So it's not going to spread widely in the U.S. Could we have another person here, could we have a case or two? Not impossible," Frieden said. "We say in medicine never say never. But we know how to stop it here. But to really protect ourselves, the single most important thing we can do is stop it at the source in Africa. That's going to protect them and protect us."
Emory's infectious diseases unit was created 12 years ago to handle doctors who get sick at the CDC. It is one of about four in the country equipped with everything necessary to test, treat and contain people exposed to very dangerous viruses.
In 2005, it handled patients with severe acute respiratory syndromeSARS, which unlike Ebola can spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
In fact, the nature of Ebola — which is spread by close contact with bodily fluids and blood — means that any modern hospital using standard, rigorous infection-control measures should be able to handle it.
On Saturday, Amber Brantly expressed her happiness in having her husband back in the USA.
"It was a relief to welcome Kent home today," she said in a statement. "I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S. I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital."
(Photo: Service in Mission)
Brantly, 33, of Fort Worth, had been working in Liberia for Samaritan's Purse overseeing an Ebola treatment center. Writebol, of Charlotte, was working at the center on behalf of the faith group Service in Mission. Samaritan's Purse is paying for their evacuation and medical care.
There's no specific treatment for Ebola so doctors try to ease symptoms, including fever, headache, vomiting and diarrhea. Some victims suffer severe bleeding.
Michael Stulman, a regional information officer in West and Central Africa for Catholic Relief Services, said Sunday that doctors and nurses there "are working in a particularly high-risk environment. They are typically are under-resourced. They're working 15- and even 20-hour days. Despite all their incredible efforts, sometimes mistakes happen and this is why we're seeing a fairly high number of Ebola-positive cases with nurses."
Treatment centers "are reaching full capacity soon after they are set up," he said in an e-mail. "Some of the observation units are not fully staffed. The cross-border nature of the outbreak and the accessibility of transport to major towns have made this outbreak particularly difficult to contain."
Among the main challenges in containing the outbreak, he said, were several circulating myths, including one that said doctors at hospitals "will give you injections that kill you" instead of treating the illness. "As a result of these myths, some families who have sought care are discharging confirmed patients from the hospital and bringing them home before they are recovered. Other people who have Ebola never go to the hospital and instead choose to stay at home with their family, which puts their family at risk of contracting the disease when caring for them."
Contributing: WXIA-TV in Atlanta; Doug Stanglin; the Associated Press
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1ngxCSh ||||| Ambulance carrying the first of two Ebola virus patients leaves Dobbins Air Reserve Base for Emory University Hospital. Mike Morris/Staff.
Plane believed to be carrying at least one of the two Ebola patients lands at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Cobb County.
Dr. Kent Brantly is shown in this 2013 photo provided by JPS Health Network. A relief group official says Brantly is one of two American aid workers that have tested positive for the Ebola virus while working to combat an outbreak of the deadly disease at a hospital in Liberia. A spokesman said both Americans have been isolated and are under intensive treatment.(AP Photo/JPS Health Network)
By Mike Morris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An airplane carrying one of the two American aid workers stricken with the Ebola virus landed at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Cobb County late Saturday morning, and the patient was transferred into a Grady Memorial Hospital ambulance and transferred to Emory University Hospital.
The two American aid workers affected with the virus, Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol, remain in critical condition, North Carolina-based relief group Samaritan’s Purse has said in a statement.
The plane carrying Brantly landed shortly after 11 a.m. on Saturday, and the ambulance carrying the patient left the base around noon, heading to the hospital.
Shortly before 12:30 p.m., Brantly got out to the back of the ambulance and walked into the hospital. The patient and the ambulance crew were all wearing white containment suits that covered their bodies from head to toe.
It was not immediately clear Writebol will arrive in Atlanta. She is also expected to be flown into Dobbins.
Brantly and Writebol will be treated in a separate isolation unit at the hospital. Located away from patients, the small room has two beds and special air filters. It’s one of only four such units in the nation. | – Ebola has arrived in the US, though in a carefully controlled manner. A plane carrying one of two Americans who contracted the disease in Africa arrived at a military air base near Atlanta this morning, reports the Journal-Constitution. The AP says the patient is 33-year-old doctor Kent Brantly, though hygienist Nancy Writebol is expected to arrive at some point as well. Both will be treated in isolation units at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital. It's the first time any US medical facility has had an Ebola patient, notes CNN. The disease is usually fatal, with the death toll in West Africa now above 700. (While being treated in Africa, Brantly turned down an experimental serum so Writebol could get it.) |
Image caption David Cameron's renegotiation could paralyse the EU, a German MP said
The popular German tabloid Bild asked today: "Is Britain destroying the EU?" The headline reflects the unease felt across Europe over David Cameron's promise to re-negotiate its EU membership.
Europe now knows what it long suspected: many in Britain have a completely different vision of the EU than those on the continent. David Cameron's European idea is of a flexible, pragmatic union that focuses on trade. The question he asks is: can the EU, as it is currently structured, deliver prosperity? In the rest of Europe they believe that closer integration will build the European dream.
Officials in Brussels said that Cameron was offering a "pick and mix Europe". His vision was for a Europe "a la carte", where countries chose what they liked and disliked.
The German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said "cherry picking was not an option". There was a similar reaction from the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. "We can't have Europe a la carte," he said. "Imagine the EU was a football club; once you've joined up and you're in this club you can't then say you want to play rugby."
As regards trying to repatriate powers to Westminster, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said it would be a "drawn out and cumbersome negotiation" involving long and complex procedures. The head of the German European Affairs Committee Gunther Krichbaum said the "EU was not a multiple choice event". He compared re-negotiation to "opening Pandora's box".
No special case
The German foreign minister went out of his way to say that he hoped the UK would continue to play an "active" and "constructive" role in the EU. He offered a concession: he agreed that not everything decided in Brussels needed to remain at a European level. He signalled that Germany would support some regulations returning to the member states.
Here's the dilemma. There are several states which believe that some measures, currently operated at EU level, could be returned to national governments. Any adjustments, however, they insist must include all 27 members. There is little support for Britain being treated as a special case. The problem for David Cameron is that he is fighting for a complete overhaul of Britain's relationship with Europe, not a tinkering at the edges.
The question I heard asked time and again today was what would the prime minister do if he felt he wasn't winning enough concessions. Might he recommend leaving the EU if he didn't get a good deal? A German MP said he thought this negotiation risked "paralysing the EU for years". One German minister was asked about the risk of Britain blackmailing other states to win further opt-outs. He declined to answer. So there is great uncertainty as to what these next years will bring.
One other unknown. It is far from clear whether the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, will push for a major revision of the treaties in 2015. If she doesn't, that will make Britain's task of re-negotiating far more difficult.
There are divided views in Europe about the referendum. One senior EU official said he welcomed Britain finally deciding whether it wanted to be in or out of Europe. "Let's settle it once and for all," he said. Others said a referendum was "highly risky". Voters might decide to punish the government by voting to leave the EU.
There were lots of statements about how much Europe needs the UK - but not at any price. Some officials welcomed David Cameron's positive remarks about the EU. However, ultimately David Cameron's vision for the EU - a flexible, adaptable union - is not widely shared.
The German foreign minister said: "We do not need less Europe but more integration."
Nothing said today can avoid the reality that Britain and much of the EU have very different ideas about the future of the union.
What is clear is that Britain will face a difficult and uphill battle if and when it starts to re-negotiate its membership. ||||| Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha smiles as they leave after voting in the EU referendum in London, Thursday June 23, 2016. Polls opened in Britain Thursday for a referendum... (Associated Press)
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha smiles as they leave after voting in the EU referendum in London, Thursday June 23, 2016. Polls opened in Britain Thursday for a referendum on whether the country should quit the European Union bloc of which it has been a member for 43 years.... (Associated Press)
LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Britain's historic vote to leave the European Union (all times local):
8:25 a.m.
Prime Minister David Cameron says he will resign by the fall and insists the British people's will must be respected after voters chose to leave the 28-nation European Union.
Cameron says there can be no doubt about the result of Thursday's historic vote but that he is not the "captain" that will steer the ship through difficult negotiations with the EU.
He says he will resign by the time of the Conservative party conference in the fall.
British stocks are plunging as the market opens as investors scramble to react to the news. The pound has hit a 31-year low.
___
8:20 a.m.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Australians that Britain's decision to leave the European Union was no cause "to be alarmed."
But he said the global uncertainty and instability the decision would cause underscored the need for Australians to re-elect his conservative coalition at elections on July 2.
"This is a momentous and historic decision and we respect the wishes of the British people," Turnbull told reporters in Devonport.
"It is important to remember that the Australian economy is strong and resilient and has weathered global shocks before," he added.
Turnbull said he was "very confident" that Australia, a former British colony which maintains constitutional links, would continue negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU.
___
8:15 a.m.
British stocks are plunging as the market opens as investors scramble to react to the news that the country has voted to leave the European Union.
The result of Thursday's historic vote has ushered in an era of uncertainty for the country and region.
The main stock index, the FTSE 100, nosedived 8.7 percent to 5,790 points shortly after the open Friday. The British pound, which trades around the clock, has plunged to a 31-year low at $1.3706.
The German DAX index, which tends to be more volatile, dropped as much as 10 percent. If that loss stands for the day, it would be the biggest drop in the index's history.
An exit from the EU is expected to weigh heavily on the British economy in coming months and years, possibly pushing it into recession. The drop in the pound could drive up inflation, and the uncertainty over the country's future trade relations could cause businesses to hold back on investment.
___
8:10 a.m.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that beyond "the blow" Britain has dealt the European Union, the referendum result must be seized on to fundamentally rethink the European project.
Michel said he wants a special "conclave" of EU leaders as soon as next month to reassess options, considering discontent is spreading even well beyond Britain.
He says "we need to keep a cool head and need to see what new way of cooperation would be possible.
He proposes a conclave in July to use this tough moment to look at a new perspective."
___
8:05 a.m.
Germany's vice chancellor says it's a bad day for Europe after British voters chose to leave the European Union.
Sigmar Gabriel, who is also Germany's economy minister, wrote on Twitter: "Damn! A bad day for Europe."
Germany is the most populous country in the 28-nation EU and has its biggest economy.
Leaders in past months have been emphasizing that while it was up to the British people to decide, Germany wanted Britain to remain in the European Union.
___
8 a.m.
European Union President Donald Tusk says the bloc will meet without Britain at summit next week to assess its future after British voters chose to leave the 28-nation bloc.
Tusk says the group is "determined to keep our unity at 27" nations and not have any more defections.
Speaking in Brussels on Friday, Tusk says he is confident in the EU's future, adding that "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."
___
7:55 a.m.
The president of the European Parliament says he expects negotiations on Britain's exit from the European Union to start quickly.
Martin Schulz told Germany's ZDF television Friday that he expects British Prime Minister David Cameron to invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty, which would set in motion the exit process.
Schulz says years of suspense would be "neither in the interests of Great Britain nor in the interests of Germany, France, Italy or the other member states of the EU."
He says: "I assume that the negotiations on the exit will now start quickly."
___
7:50 a.m.
French President Francois Hollande has convened an emergency government meeting in the wake of the British vote to leave the European Union.
Hollande's office announced the Friday morning meeting, saying only that it would be about Europe's future.
Hollande has not publicly commented on the result of the British vote, which will have consequences for the whole continent.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is more popular in polls than Hollande, called Friday for a similar anti-EU referendum in France.
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7:40 a.m.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn says British Prime Minister David Cameron must move urgently to stabilize the pound, which was trading around $1.3706 Friday morning after plummeting to a 31-year low.
Corbyn also says Britain's main opposition party will oppose any emergency budget or expansion of Britain's austerity program resulting from the Thursday vote to leave the European Union.
The Bank of England says it's ready to take "all necessary steps" to help keep Britain stable after voters chose to leave the 28-nation bloc.
Corbyn says British manufacturing depends on trade with the EU and called for careful steps to preserve British trade. He and other senior Labour figures had urged voters to remain in the EU.
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7:35 a.m.
Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso said he is "extremely concerned" about the impact and risks of Britain's exit from the European Union on global financial markets.
"I'm extremely concerned about possible risks that the apparent decision would pose on global financial and currency markets, where stability is very important," Aso told reporters in an emergency news conference.
British voters have chosen to leave the EU, shattering the framework for continental unity.
Aso said he is particularly concerned about the nervous movement in the currency markets and hoped to see "firm intervention whenever necessary." The British pound has tanked to $1.3706 after hitting a 31-year low earlier Friday.
7:30 a.m.
UK Independence Leader Nigel Farage says Britain's decision to leave the European Union is "a victory for ordinary people, against the big banks, big business and big politics."
Speaking Friday morning after the shocking British vote to leave the bloc, Farage insists the EU itself is dying. He called for June 23 to be made a new national bank holiday known as Independence Day.
Far-right leaders in France and the Netherlands have already called for a similar anti-EU vote.
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7:25 a.m.
Commuters at the main train station in the well-heeled southwest London borough of Richmond, which voted overwhelmingly to remain, expressed anger and frustration at the British vote to leave the EU.
"I'm quite shocked really," said Martin Laidler. "My nine-year-old daughter asked me to vote to remain, so I was voting for her future."
Olivia Sangster-Bullers, 24, said the result was "absolutely disgusting."
"My best friend and his partner, one of them is from Spain. How does he feel now?"
Asked whether it would affect her life, she said: "I've just seen that the pound's crashed, so good luck to all of us I say, especially those trying to build a future with our children."
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7:20 a.m.
The Bank of England says it's ready to take "all necessary steps" to help keep Britain stable after voters chose to leave the 28-nation European Union.
The results of the vote Thursday have shaken global markets and caused the pound to tank, which will cause a slide in inflation, a major concern for the central bank. Investors are also poised to dump British stocks as soon as the market opens in London on Friday.
The bank says Friday it had prepared with extensive contingency planning and "is working closely with HM Treasury, other domestic authorities and overseas central banks."
The bank says it will take "all necessary steps" to meet its responsibilities for monetary and fiscal stability.
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7:10 a.m.
The United States is reacting cautiously to the decision by Britain's voters to bolt the 28-nation European Union, with a White House official saying only that President Barack Obama is being kept up to date on developments.
The official said Obama was expected to speak with British Prime Minister David Cameron "over the course of the next day."
Obama has encouraged Britain to remain in the EU but has said the decision ultimately was up to British voters.
— By Kevin Freking.
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7:05 a.m.
Analysts are cutting their estimates for Britain's economic growth after the country voted to leave the European Union, ushering in a period of high uncertainty that is likely to shake businesses, consumers and markets for some time.
Howard Archer, the global economist for IHS Global Insight, says his research group is slashing its growth forecast for this year to 1.5 percent from 2.0 percent and, more dramatically, to 0.2 percent for next year from 2.4 percent previously.
Archer expects the Bank of England to switch from hoping to raise interest rates soon to cutting them by a quarter point to 0.25 percent before long.
He says: "Major economic and political uncertainty will be a fact of life for some considerable time, likely weighing down markedly on business and household confidence and behavior, so dampening corporate investment, employment and consumer spending."
Analysts at Capital Economics have the same growth forecasts for 2016 but are more hopeful about 2017, seeing 1.5 percent growth.
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7 a.m.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen says there should be a similar referendum about EU membership in France after Britons voted to leave the 28-nation bloc.
"A victory for Freedom," Le Pen tweeted. "We now need the same referendum in France and in EU nations."
In the Netherlands, her ally Geert Wilders of the far-right PVV party also immediately called for a similar plebiscite.
Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent on Thursday to leave the EU to take greater control of the country's economy and its borders. The decision has shocked global markets and sent the pound plummeting to the lowest level in 31 years.
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6:55 a.m.
Top European Union officials are hunkering down in Brussels trying to work out how to navigate uncharted waters after the shocking decision by British voters to leave the 28-nation bloc.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is hosting talks Friday with the leaders of the European Council and Parliament, along with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.
The four will try to agree a European position on the vote, which could see a member country leave the bloc for the first time ever, ahead of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels starting on Tuesday.
Parliamentary leaders were meeting separately, and European commissioners — the EU's executive body — could hold separate talks later.
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6:50 a.m.
Shocked investors are ready to dump British stocks as soon as the market opens at 0700 GMT (3 a.m. EDT).
Futures for the benchmark stock index FTSE 100 are down 7.5 percent and the pound, which trades 24 hours a day, has already fallen to its lowest level since 1985 after British voters took the historic decision to pull their country out of the 28-nation European Union.
The British currency was down 7.9 percent against the dollar at $1.3406, the lowest level in 31 years. It was down 5.1 percent against the euro, at 1.2193 euros.
Britain's decision to leave the EU launches what will be years of negotiations over trade, business and political links with the EU.
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6:40 a.m.
The head of the biggest political bloc in the European Parliament says the U.K. vote to leave the EU is damaging but that the decision is for Britain, not the European Union.
European People's Party chairman Manfred Weber says Friday that the vote "causes major damage to both sides, but in first line to the U.K."
Weber added that "this was a British vote, not a European vote. People in the other states don't want to leave Europe."
Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent on Thursday to leave the EU to take greater control of the country's economy and borders.
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6:30 a.m.
One of the leaders of the victorious 'leave' campaign has reassured the European Union that Britain will continue to be a good neighbor after its unprecedented vote to leave the bloc.
Labour lawmaker Gisela Stuart, who was born in Germany, spoke in German to say that "Britain is an open society, it is a welcoming society and we will continue to be cooperating with European countries on an international level."
As the British pound and global stock markets fell at the shocking result, Stuart says "it is incumbent on all of us to be very calm, remember that our responsibility is to the future of the United Kingdom, and work together to start a process."
She says "in the long run, I think that both Europe and the United Kingdom will emerge stronger as a result."
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6:25 a.m.
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders is calling for a plebiscite in the Netherlands about leaving the European Union after Britons voted to ditch the 28-nation bloc.
Wilders tweeted: "Hurrah for the British! Now it is our turn. Time for a Dutch referendum!"
EU officials have long suspected that a British decision to leave the bloc would be quickly claimed as a victory among the far left and right in European politics.
The British vote is considered a political earthquake that will shatter the stability of the continental unity forged after World War II.
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6:15 a.m.
As dawn broke over London, those who wanted Britain to stay in the European Union woke up to grim news: voters had chosen instead to leave the 28-nation bloc.
Veteran Labour lawmaker Keith Vaz says "this is a crushing, crushing decision. This is a terrible day for Europe."
Green lawmaker Caroline Lucas said she was devastated by the news, blaming "alienation, anger and frustration" for the results of Thursday's vote.
"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, a prominent "remain" campaigner, says "I don't think I've ever wanted magic more" in a Twitter message.
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6:05 a.m.
Britain has voted to leave the European Union to take greater control of its economy and its borders, shattering the stability of the continental unity forged after World War II.
The decision launches what will be years of negotiations over trade, business and political links with the EU, which will shrink to a 27-nation bloc.
Results released early Friday show the "leave" side prevailed 52 percent to 48 percent in Thursday's vote as tallied by British broadcasters. The vote had a turnout of 72 percent.
The U.K. is the first major country to decide to leave the bloc, which evolved from the ashes of the war as the region's leaders sought to build links and avert future hostility.
Financial authorities around the world have warned that a British exit will reverberate through a delicate global economy.
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5:50 a.m.
Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon says her country cast an "unequivocal" vote to remain in the European Union — a result that raises the specter of a new referendum on Scottish independence.
Sturgeon said "the vote here makes clear that the people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union."
All 32 voting areas in Scotland voted to stay in the EU, but they were outnumbered by a strong English "leave" vote.
Scotland rejected independence from the UK in its own 2014 referendum, but Friday's result gives new momentum to the cause.
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5:40 a.m.
Britain's vote to leave the 28-nation European Union is likely to cost Prime Minister David Cameron his job.
The leader of the ruling Conservative Party had staked his reputation on keeping Britain in the EU.
Former London Mayor Boris Johnson, the most prominent supporter of the "leave" campaign, is now seen as a leading contender to replace Cameron.
Cameron promised the referendum to appease the right wing of his own party and blunt a challenge from the U.K. Independence Party, which pledged to leave the EU. After winning a majority in Parliament in the last election, Cameron negotiated a package of reforms that he said would protect Britain's sovereignty and prevent EU migrants from moving to the U.K. to claim public benefits.
Critics charged that the reforms were hollow, leaving Britain at the mercy of bureaucrats in Brussels and doing nothing to stem the tide of European immigrants coming to the U.K. Those concerns were magnified after more than 1 million people from the Middle East and Africa flooded into the EU last year.
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5:25 a.m.
The result of the British referendum has shocked the markets but delighted "leave" campaigners.
"The dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom," U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage declared to loud cheers at a "leave" campaign party. "Let June 23 go down in our history as our independence day!"
As results poured in Friday morning, a picture emerged of a sharply divided nation: Strong pro-EU votes in the economic and cultural powerhouse of London and semi-autonomous Scotland were countered by sweeping anti-Establishment sentiment for an exit across the rest of England, from southern seaside towns to rust-belt former industrial powerhouses in the north.
Deputy Labour Party leader John McDonnell says "a lot of people's grievances are coming out and we have got to start listening to them."
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5:15 a.m.
Britain has entered uncharted waters after the country voted to leave the European Union, according to a projection by all main U.K. broadcasters. The decision shatters the stability of the continental unity forged after World War II in hopes of making future conflicts impossible.
The decision raises the likelihood of years of negotiations over trade, business and political links with what will become a 27-nation bloc. In essence the vote marks the start — rather than the end — of a process that could take decades to unwind.
The "leave" side was ahead by 51.7 percent to 48.3 percent Friday morning with more than three-quarters of votes tallied, making a "remain" win a statistical near-impossibility.
The pound suffered one of its biggest one-day falls in history, plummeting more than 10 percent in six hours, from about $1.50 to below $1.35, on concern that severing ties with the single market will hurt the U.K. economy and undermine London's position as a global financial center. ||||| The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said there can be no talks on Brexit before the UK formally begins the process of leaving the EU.
While accepting the UK needed time, she added it should not be a "long time".
Mrs Merkel is due to meet French and Italian leaders later in Berlin, with the speed of negotiations for the UK's exit high on the agenda.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has confirmed the UK is not ready to begin the formal withdrawal process.
Earlier, Chancellor George Osborne issued a statement to try to calm markets. UK shares remained uneasy in the wake of the vote.
Billions more dollars were wiped off the value of shares in Europe and on Wall Street as a result of market uncertainty on Monday. London's benchmark share index was down 2.75% while Germany's leading index fell by 3%.
Last Thursday, the UK voted 52-48 in favour of leaving the EU in a historic referendum, throwing the economy and politics into turmoil.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said his country's "special relationship" with the UK will be maintained. "The vote did not come out the way US President [Barack] Obama and I had expected but that's democracy," he told reporters in Brussels.
What exactly did Mrs Merkel say?
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mrs Merkel leads the country with the biggest economy in the EU
"The reality is that a majority of British citizens voted to leave... so I await a communication about Article 50 [the formal trigger for withdrawal] from the UK addressed to the EU," Mrs Merkel said.
"We should not wait a long time. I do understand that the UK will consider things for a while. There cannot be any informal negotiations until we get that message from the UK.
"We can't have a permanent impasse," she was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Once the UK invokes it, Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon sets out a two-year timetable to reach an exit deal. But UK PM David Cameron, who will step down by October, says he will leave the timing to his successor. He is due to make a special address to parliament later.
The Leave campaign says there is no need to rush the UK's exit.
France and Germany have insisted they are in "full agreement" on Brexit, although French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Monday this meant Britain should "go quickly".
How is the UK government responding?
Mr Cameron took to the floor of the House of Commons to say he had spoken to European leaders and told them "the British government [would] not be triggering Article 50 at this stage".
"Before we do that we need to determine the kind of relationship we want with the EU," he said.
He repeated his promise to stand down as prime minister this year and said it would be up to his successor to invoke Article 50.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption George Osborne: "We are equipped for whatever happens"
The chancellor, who backed Remain, tried to reassure financial markets that the UK was in a strong position to tackle the inevitable volatility.
Despite suggesting before the vote that an emergency budget would be needed, he indicated that this would not now be an immediate priority, preferring to leave any adjustments to the economy to the new PM.
He appeared to rule out resigning in the near future.
What are the Leave campaigners saying?
Boris Johnson, the leading light of the Leave campaign, used an article in the Daily Telegraph to try to soothe British fears.
"EU citizens living in this country will have their rights fully protected, and the same goes for British citizens living in the EU. British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; to buy homes and settle down," he said.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Boris Johnson was a key figure in the campaign for Brexit
He also suggested the UK would still have access to the EU's single market, a remark quickly challenged by the German Business Institute and Merkel ally Michael Fuchs, MP.
Mr Fuchs said: "It will be possible, of course, but not for free - you have to see with Norway, with Switzerland, you have to pay a certain fee. And the per capita fee of Norway is exactly the same as what Britain is now paying into the EU. So there won't be any savings."
What's the latest political fallout in the UK?
Labour faced more turmoil, with further resignations of shadow ministers on Monday. Twenty-three of the 31 members of the shadow cabinet have now gone.
Mr Corbyn has announced a new team but faces a possible no-confidence vote.
Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, which voted 62% for Remain, told the BBC the Scottish parliament could try to block the UK's exit from the EU.
She also confirmed a second Scottish independence referendum was back on the table.
Brexit: A busy week ahead
Monday: Angela Merkel holds crisis talks in Berlin, first with EU President Donald Tusk, then with Mr Hollande and Mr Renzi (statement to media expected at 18:30 local time, 16:30 GMT).
Tuesday: Extraordinary European Parliament session in Brussels on Brexit vote 10:00-12:00 (08:00-10:00 GMT), including speeches by Mr Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and party leaders, probably including UKIP's Nigel Farage. There is also an EU summit (European Council) in Brussels, at which David Cameron will brief the other EU leaders over dinner, from 19:45 (17:45 GMT), explaining the political fallout in the UK
Wednesday: Second day of EU summit will feature breakfast talks between 27 leaders - Mr Cameron not attending. Talks focus on UK's "divorce process" as stipulated by Article 50, and Mr Tusk will "launch a wider reflection on the future of the EU"; press conferences in afternoon. | – British PM David Cameron made an impassioned case today for his country to stick with the European Union, but said it's time for Britons "to have their say" on the matter, reports the New York Times. He promised an "in-or-out" referendum as early as 2017—provided, of course, he wins reelection in 2015. The Conservative Party leader acknowledged that many Brits "feel that the EU is heading in a direction they never signed up to," citing increased regulation by the European Commission as particularly problematic. The Times notes that Cameron's move could be an attempt to pick up votes in the next election, but it is reverberating throughout the globe: "Germany, and I personally, want Britain to be an important part" of the EU, said Angela Merkel, while noting that a "fair compromise" must be found. Meanwhile, the BBC notes that Germany's Bild is running a headline that asks, "Is Britain destroying the EU?" In Washington, the Obama administration has been open about its desire to see the UK remain part of the EU. Cameron noted that an exit from the Union would be a "one-way ticket." |
A La Crosse man is being charged with a felony.
after he tried stopping an armed robbery at a local
bar.
News 8's Kyle Dimke joins us now with the story.
Early Monday morning.
Jeff Steele was at King's Korner.
A bar on south 8-th street in La Crosse.
It was just about closing time when a woman walked
in.
pointed a gun at the bartender and demanded all money.
Jeff tried to stop the women.
and now he's the one in trouble.
Jeff: 7- I didn't think I did anything wrong by any
means
Jeff Steele has lived in the neighborhood surrounding
King's Korner bar for about 40 years.
Jeff: 4- it's not really the nicest neighborhood we
live in
Which is why Jeff carries a tazer.
And he used it on Monday morning.
Colleen: 1- I was in the cooler right over here and
when I stood up she was standing in the middle of
the bar with a small hand gun pointed at me
Jeff: 1- I seen Colleen having to pull money out of
the till, I looked over and seen the mask and somebody
with a gun
24 year old Heidi Thompson was the women underneath
the mask.
Colleen: 2- She said, 'OK guys put your hands on your
head and give me all the money, all the 20's'
Bartender Colleen Hogan says when she turned around
with money from the register.
she saw Jeff walking towards Thompson with his tazer.
Colleen: 3- I don't think he made contact because
I could see it sparking, but he definitely startled
her
Thompson ran from the bar and was arrested minutes
later by La Crosse Police.
But she isn't the only one with charges following
this incident.
Jeff is being charged with possession of an electronic
weapon.
A felony.
Because he doesn't have a concealed carry permit for
his tazer.
Lisa: 2- you can have it in your home and on your
private property without a concealed carry permit,
but you do need to keep a concealed carry permit to
carry it out in public
Jeff: 3- when I bought it off the internet it said
basically that it's legal to have in the state of
Wisconsin, but didn't go into any depth on it, so
I assumed that it was legal to carry around, otherwise
why would you buy one to leave it at home? How is
it for defense then
In La Crosse KD N8
The La Crosse Police Department says because Jeff
tried help.
that is why he wasn't immediately taken to jail.
He is currently on a signature bond.
It is now up to the District Attorney's office to
decide wether to pursue the felony charge or not.
Thanks Kyle.
The women who robbed the bar is being held on a 10-thousand
dollar cash bond.
She is facing charges of armed robbery and disorderly
conduct. ||||| A La Crosse woman is jailed and facing charges that accuse her of robbing a South Side tavern at gunpoint early Monday.
Heidi Thompson, 24, pointed a .22-caliber revolver at a bartender of King's Corner, 1321 S. Eighth St., about 1:50 a.m., according to La Crosse police.
She asked for cash before a bar patron tried to stun her with a stun gun, police said. Thompson left with an undisclosed amount of cash before police arrested her minutes later in the 1000 block of Jackson Street.
Thompson confessed to planning the robbery, prosecutors said in court.
Thompson, a former employee of the tavern, faces armed robbery with use of force and disorderly conduct charges when she appears Tuesday in La Crosse County Circuit Court. She is jailed on a $10,000 cash bond. | – A man who tried to stop a robbery in a Wisconsin bar has been charged with a felony because he wasn't supposed to be carrying the Taser he allegedly threatened the suspect with. According to WKBT-TV, Jeff Steele was at the King's Korner bar in La Crosse just before 2am last Monday morning when a masked woman came in, pointed a handgun at the bartender, and demanded money. Bartender Colleen Hogan says she saw Steele walking toward the woman with the Taser. She says he didn't appear to actually use it on the suspect, but the woman was apparently startled by the sight of it and took off. The suspect, a former employee of the bar, was arrested minutes later; Heidi Thompson, 24, has been charged with armed robbery, the La Crosse Tribune reports. Steele was charged with possession of an electronic weapon because he didn't have a permit to carry the Taser. "You can have it in your home and on your private property without a concealed-carry permit, but you do need to keep a concealed-carry permit to carry it out in public," a police spokeswoman tells WKBT. Steele says he bought the stun gun because he lives in a rough neighborhood; he also says when he ordered it online, he was informed that it was legal in Wisconsin, so he assumed it was legal to carry it around. WKBT notes the district attorney's office will make the call as to whether to pursue the felony charge. (Read about more weird crimes from last week.) |
In classrooms, churches, and other places, bells rang out across the country while people observed a moment of silence for the victims of the Newtown, Conn. shooting. NBC's Ron Mott reports.
Updated at 3:40 p.m. ET: The last of the funerals for the 26 victims of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., were held Saturday, ending a week-long procession of funerals as the final three young victims are laid to rest.
On Friday morning, exactly one week after a gunman burst into Sandy Hook Elementary and killed 20 first-graders and six educators, the nation paused for a moment of silence and tolled bells 26 times for the victims.
Josephine Gay's funeral mass was held at Saint Rose of Lima Saturday morning. The first grader had just turned 7 the week of the shooting. On Monday, purple balloons — Josephine’s favorite color — sprouted from the family mailbox and those of all her neighbors.
"'Joey' is a beautiful little girl, may she never be forgotten and live forever in our hearts," wrote Polly Larsen, a family friend, on Facebook.
Six-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene had just moved to Newtown two months ago, in part, because of Sandy Hooks’s pristine reputation, her grandmother, Elba Marquez said. Ana's funeral was held Saturday morning at First Cathedral in Bloomfield, Conn.
Ana’s father, Jimmy Greene, wrote on Facebook, "As much as she's needed here and missed by her mother, brother and me, Ana beat us all to paradise."
Emilie Parker, 6, loved to make people smile and never missed a chance to draw a picture or make a card. Her father, Robbie Parker, said she loved to try new things, except for food.
Related: Profiles of the victims
In a press conference, Parker said he held no animosity for the gunman, even as he struggled to explain the death to his other two children, ages 3 and 4. He was sustained, he said, by the fact that the world is better for having had Emilie in it.
"I'm so blessed to be her dad," Parker said.
Emilie was laid to rest Saturday in Ogden, Utah, where her family lived before moving to Newtown. On Friday night her family held a memorial service in Ogden and released 26 lanterns. Emilie's dad released the final lantern, a pink one, his daughter's favorite color.
Back to school: Jan. 3
As the funerals and wakes for those killed come to an end, Chalk Hill Middle School in neighboring Monroe is being refurbished into an elementary school, ready to open on Jan. 3.
The first grade will be consolidated into one class, according to The Associated Press. The rooms are being repainted, the technology being upgraded and the floor being raised in the bathrooms so that the little ones can properly sit on the toilets.
Chalk Hill teachers have volunteered to decorate and paint the classrooms, and the school district is offering the middle school, which has been empty for two years, free of charge.
"We're going to have a lot of support for them," Newtown Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said of the approximately 30 teachers and staff members from Sandy Hook. "Certainly, if they need more time, they can have more time. But I think many don't want their children -- they own those children -- they don't want them to be with a substitute. So I think most of them are going to try to come back."
Robinson described to the AP how the morning of the shooting unfolded for her.
She arrived at the Sandy Hook firehouse where families of students had gathered, but she didn’t know how many children had been killed.
Then the police chief took her aside, she recalled: “He said, ‘Janet, this is much worse than you're probably thinking.’”
The Associated Press contributed reporting. ||||| Newtown's children were showered with gifts Saturday _ tens of thousands of teddy bears, Barbie dolls, soccer balls and board games _ but only a portion of the tokens of support from around the world for the city in mourning.
Alissa Parker, left, and her husband, Robbie Parker, center, carry their daughters, Samantha, 3, and Madeline, 4, following funeral services for their 6-year old daughter, Connecticut elementary shooting... (Associated Press)
Alissa Parker carries her daughter, Samantha, 3, following funeral services for her 6-year old daughter, Connecticut elementary shooting victim Emilie Parker, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012, at the Church of... (Associated Press)
The casket of 6-year-old Emilie Parker is carried following funeral services on Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012, in Ogden, Utah. Emilie, whose family has Ogden roots, was one of the victims killed in a Dec. 14... (Associated Press)
Robbie Parker, left, carries his daughter, Madeline, 4, following funeral services for his 6-year old daughter, Connecticut elementary shooting victim Emilie Parker, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012, at The Church... (Associated Press)
Volunteer Anthony Vessicchio of East Haven, Conn., helps to sort tables full of donated toys at the town hall in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Associated Press)
Photos showing those killed in the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School are imprinted on fake roses at a memorial in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn., Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth... (Associated Press)
A package, bottom, addressed to "a survivor who needs a hug" of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting sits in a bin as Dee Amin sorts through packages at the post office in Newtown, Conn., Friday,... (Associated Press)
A sign against weapons is displayed at a memorial to the Newtown shooting victims in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn., Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. The funerals for the victims of the school shooting... (Associated Press)
A message of support hangs over a table full of donated toys at the town hall in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Associated Press)
Just a little over a week ago, 20 children and six school employees were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, attacked the school, then killed himself. Police don't know what set off the massacre.
Days before Christmas, funerals were still being held Saturday, the last of those whose schedules were made public, the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association said. A service was held in Utah for 6-year-old Emilie Parker. Others were scheduled in Connecticut for Josephine Gay, 7, and Ana Marquez-Greene, 6.
All of Newtown's children were invited to Edmond Town Hall, where they could choose a toy. Bobbi Veach, who was fielding donations at the building, reflected on the outpouring of gifts from toy stores, organizations and individuals around the world.
"It's their way if grieving," Veach said. "They say, `I feel so bad, I just want to do something to reach out.' That's why we accommodate everybody we can."
The United Way of Western Connecticut said the official fund for donations had $2.6 million in it Saturday morning. Others sent envelopes stuffed with cash to pay for coffee at the general store, and a shipment of cupcakes arrived from a gourmet bakery in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The Postal Service reported a six-fold increase in mail in town and set up a unique post office box to handle it. The parcels come decorated with rainbows and hearts drawn by school children.
Some letters arrived in packs of 26 identical envelopes _ one for each family of the children and staff killed or addressed to the "First Responders" or just "The People of Newtown." One card arrived from Georgia addressed to "The families of 6 amazing women and 20 beloved angels." Many contained checks.
"This is just the proof of the love that's in this country," said Postmaster Cathy Zieff.
Peter Leone said he was busy making deli sandwiches and working the register at his Newtown General Store when he got a phone call from Alaska. It was a woman who wanted to give him her credit card number.
"She said, `I'm paying for the next $500 of food that goes out your door,'" Leone said. "About a half hour later another gentleman called, I think from the West Coast, and he did the same thing for $2,000."
At the town hall building, the basement resembled a toy store, with piles of stuffed penguins, dolls, games, and other fun gifts. All the toys were inspected and examined by bomb-sniffing dogs before being sorted and put on card tables. The children could choose whatever they wanted.
"But we're not checking IDs at the door," said Tom Mahoney, the building administrator, who's in charge of handling gifts. "If there is a child from another town who comes in need of a toy, we're not going to turn them away."
Many people have placed flowers, candles and stuffed animals at makeshift memorials that have popped up all over town. Others are stopping by the Edmond Town Hall to drop off food, or toys, or cash. About 60,000 teddy bears were donated, said Ann Benoure, a social services caseworker who was working at the town hall.
"There's so much stuff coming in," Mahoney said. "To be honest, it's a bit overwhelming; you just want to close the doors and turn the phone off."
Mahoney said the town of some 27,000 with a median household income of more than $111,000 plans to donate whatever is left over to shelters or other charities.
Sean Gillespie of Colchester, who attended Sandy Hook Elementary, and Lauren Minor, who works at U.S. Foodservice in Norwich, came from Calvary Chapel in Uncasville with a car filled with food donated by U.S. Foodservice. But they were sent elsewhere because the refrigerators in Newtown were overflowing with donations.
"We'll find someplace," Gillespie said. "It won't go to waste."
In addition to the town's official fund, other private funds have been set up. Former Sandy Hook student Ryan Kraft, who once babysat Lanza, set up a fund with other alumni that has collected almost $150,000. It is earmarked for the Sandy Hook PTA.
Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel is raising money for a memorial to the victims. He said one man wrote a check for $52,000 for that project.
Several colleges, including the University of Connecticut, have set up scholarship funds to pay for the educations of students at Sandy Hook and the relatives of the victims.
Town officials have not decided yet what to do with all the money. A board of Newtown community leaders is being established to determine how it is most needed and will be best utilized, said Isabel Almeida with the local United Way, which has waived all its administrative fees related to the fund.
She said some have wondered about building a new school for Sandy Hook students if the town decides to tear the school down, but that decision has not been made.
And while the town is grateful for all the support, Almeida said, it has no more room for those gifts. Instead, she encouraged people to donate to others in memory of the Sandy Hook victims.
"Send those teddy bears to a school in your community or an organization that serves low income children, who are in need this holiday season, and do it in memory of our children," she said.
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Associated Press writers Jesse Washington, Allen Breed, Chris Sullivan, Eileen Connelly, Susan Haigh and John Christoffersen contributed to this report. | – The last three funerals for victims of the Sandy Hook massacre were held today as millions of dollars in donations poured into Newtown, Conn., NBC News reports. Josephine Gay, 7, and Ana Marquez-Greene, 6, were laid to rest in Connecticut, and Emilie Parker, 6, in Ogden, Utah. Emilie's father, Robbie Parker, said at a press conference that he held no ill will toward shooter Adam Lanza but found it hard to explain the killing to his other kids, ages 3 and 4. Emilie's effect on the world was his only comfort, he said: "I'm so blessed to be her dad." Meanwhile officials were refurbishing unused Chalk Hill Middle School in nearby Monroe, Conn., to be ready Jan. 3 for children who survived the massacre. Newtown's school superintendent offered time off for Sandy Hook's teachers and staff, but said that "I think many don't want their children—they own those children—they don't want them to be with a substitute." Also today, Newtown's children were invited to a town hall to choose a toy from the tens of thousands pouring in, reports the AP. Donations at the United Way of Western Connecticut reached $2.6 million this morning. |
The ex-wife of Staples founder Tom Stemberg is in probate court in Massachusetts to tell a judge she's OK with unsealing testimony that former Gov. Mitt Romney gave in her divorce case.
Maureen Stemberg Sullivan appeared in court Wednesday with lawyer Gloria Allred. The Boston Globe has asked a judge to lift an impoundment order on Romney's testimony in the case from the 1990s.
Romney attorney Robert Jones told the judge he has no position on the request.
Stemberg has been a surrogate for Romney, now the Republican presidential nominee, and spoke on Romney's behalf at the GOP convention. Staples was founded with backing from Romney's firm, Bain Capital.
Allred says she does not object to the newspaper's motion to modify a confidentiality order that prevents parties in the divorce from discussing it. ||||| CANTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney's testimony from a 1991 court hearing related to the founder of Staples Inc appeared to contain little likely to damage the candidate's chances in the November 6 general election.The 192-page filing, released with a Massachusetts court's approval on Thursday, shows that the retailer, prior to its initial public offering, issued a new class of shares to help fund Staples founder Thomas Stemberg's divorce from Maureen Sullivan Stemberg.The Norfolk Probate & Family Court in Canton, Massachusetts, south of Boston, on Thursday approved the release of hundreds of pages of testimony Romney delivered at a hearing on Thomas Stemberg's divorce from Sullivan Stemberg, at the Boston Globe newspaper's request.The office-supplies retailer - in which Bain Capital, a private equity fund that Romney worked for before entering politics, was an early investor - had privately sold a new class of shares to facilitate the divorce, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney said, according to the transcripts."It was something which was done in my opinion, it was initiated as a favor. Tom needed to have a settlement with his wife so that was the genesis of it," Romney said, according to the transcripts.The "D" class of shares at issue could be converted to common stock, unlike earlier shares sold in three prior rounds of fundraising, which held greater voting rights, Romney said, according to the transcript.Thomas Steinberg spoke on Romney's behalf at the Republican National Convention in August.Sullivan Stemberg's attorney, Gloria Allred, had sought both to have the transcripts released and to free her client from a gag order that prevents both Sullivan Stemberg and her former husband from discussing terms of their divorce.Norfolk Probate & Family Court Assistant Judicial Case Manager Jennifer Ulwick agreed to the release of the documents but declined to lift the gag order.Allred warned that without Sullivan Stemberg's comments the testimony may mean little to the general public."Out of context, it is essentially meaningless to the public, and she can put it in context," Allred said, referring to her client.Romney provided testimony in 1991 on behalf of Stemberg, who was battling a post-divorce lawsuit.Sullivan Stemberg has disputed Romney's description of the value of the company, according to a filmmaker who interviewed her.A spokesman for Thomas Stemberg said he was pleased that the judge had upheld the order preventing him or his ex-wife from discussing the case."We are delighted that the court has upheld the confidentiality order in this case, which has nothing to do with Governor Romney," said George Regan, a spokesman for Stemberg. "It is and always has been a private family matter that should not be subject to public speculation."ROMNEY LAWYER DOES NOT OBJECTRomney attorney Robert Jones said the candidate had no objection to the testimony being made public."These tabloid charges being shopped by Gloria Allred, one of President Obama's most prominent supporters, are absolutely false," said Jones, of the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray. "There is no new information here."Allred, who has donated to Obama's re-election campaign, denied the moves were politically motivated.Staples also raised no objections to the release.At issue is how Romney described the value of Staples. An independent filmmaker who interviewed Sullivan Stemberg for an uncompleted movie project told Reuters on Wednesday that she felt he inaccurately described the value of the company.Staples, which went public in 1989, was worth $264.4 million on June 26, 1991, the first day of Romney's testimony.Three months later, the stock price had climbed 26 percent to push its market value to $334.28 million on September 26, 1991. A year after Romney's testimony, Staples was worth $507.1 million.Romney in testimony described Thomas Steinberg as a typical entrepreneur, placing high odds on the success of his business, according to the testimony."He spoke about the future as if it were here today and minimized the, you know, in raising money from board members individually minimized the, in his own mind, the risks and maximized the probability of a high degree of success," Romney said, according to the transcript.(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken and Eric Walsh) | – Gloria Allred and the Boston Globe are in court this morning trying to unseal testimony Mitt Romney gave more than a decade ago, and TMZ thinks it has the scoop on what's in that testimony. The testimony came during a divorce hearing for Staples founder Tom Stemberg, a good friend of Romney's who has stumped for the candidate. Sources tell the gossip site that Romney, whose Bain Capital was an early investor in Staples, told the court that Staples was almost worthless, and that he "didn't place a great deal of credibility in the company's future." Thanks in part to that testimony, Stemberg's wife, Maureen Stemberg Sullivan, got a relatively stingy settlement, while the sources say that Romney and Stemberg cashed in big on their Staples shares just weeks later. The sources also allege that years later, while Stemberg was a health care adviser for Romney, he cut off Sullivan's health insurance; she suffers from MS and has had multiple bouts with cancer. Other sources vary on the content of the testimony, however; Radar reports that Romney simply testified as to Stemberg's ability as a father. The AP reports that Sullivan appeared in court today with Allred to support the unsealing of the testimony. Romney's attorney has said he has no position on the request. |
Enlarge By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY Amish romances are set among serene farms and tranquil scenery, much like this rural road in Lancaster County, Pa. EXCERPT EXCERPT Hearing Dat and Adam called a cheerful "Willkumm" to Yonnie outside, she assumed he'd come to borrow a tool. She shook off the image of handsome Yonnie sitting in his buggy, nonchalantly holding the reins. True, she'd enjoyed his company quite a lot before Henry Stahl had started seeing her regularly. But that was back last year, when Yonnie and his family had first arrived from Indiana, and Yonnie had only asked to go walking after Singing a few times. From The Missing by Beverly Lewis SPIRITUAL SISTERS SPIRITUAL SISTERS The Amish aren't the only religious group finding their way into romance novels: The Shakers. In The Seeker by Ann Gabhart (Revell, $14.99), a young Kentucky woman follows her ex-fiance to a Shaker community in 1860. Mormons. The Sister Wife by Diane Noble (Avon Inspired, $12.99), set in the turbulent 1840s, centers on a young Mormon convert who must share her beloved husband with another woman. Baptists. In Holy Rollers by ReShonda Tate Billingsley (Gallery, $15), three African-American Houston women -- lifelong pals who have spent their 20s dating pro athletes -- attend a conference for Baptist ministers looking for soul mates. It's plain and simple: The Amish inspirational is one of the fastest-growing genres in romance publishing. For many readers today, it's all about the bonnet. In our sex-soaked society, nothing seems to inflame the imagination quite like the chaste. In popular series such as Beverly Lewis' Seasons of Grace, Wanda Brunstetter's Indiana Cousins and Cindy Woodsmall's Sisters of the Quilt,the Amish fall in love while grappling with religious taboos and forbidden temptations. And it all happens in über-quaint settings brimming with hand-sewn quilts, horse-drawn buggies and made-from-scratch Pennsylvania Dutch specialties such as shoofly pie. "It's a huge, huge, huge trend," says romance blogger Sarah Wendell, co-author of Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels. Who are the Amish? In a 21st-century world, the strictest among them live a 19th-century lifestyle. They are a religious, Christian-based farming community that shuns most modern conveniences such as phones and TVs, and they travel by horse and buggy. They marry among their own faith; the women wear bonnets and modest, drab clothing, the men wear brimmed hats and grow their beards. Children are taught in one-room schoolhouses, and education ends in the eighth grade. Traditional courtship rituals include "Sunday evening singing" group gatherings, where boys and girls can meet. Premarital sex is verboten. So what is their appeal to modern readers? Remember when Kelly McGillis' modest Amish beauty enraptured Harrison Ford's homicide detective in the 1985 hit Witness? His tough contemporary cop, who pretended to be Amish to protect the widow Rachel Lapp and her young son, saw a whole new world when he lived amid the closed community of barn-raisers and farmers. With Amish inspirationals, which are shelved under "religious fiction" in bookstores like Barnes & Noble, "readers get to peer inside the Amish community, and it is not like our own community," says McDaniel College English professor Pamela Regis, author of A Natural History of the Romance Novel. "Simplicity is a hallmark of that community, and simplicity is powerful." Longing to connect The original creators of the Real Simple life were a group of 16th-century European Protestants who embraced the biblical injunction to turn away from the world. Their descendants are often called "The Plain People." The largest Amish communities in the USA are in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio. While more liberal Amish and Mennonite groups allow members to drive, the Amish inspirational novels focus on the strictest of the strict — the no-car, no-electricity crowd. And that low-tech lifestyle creates a small-town atmosphere, which has deep appeal for readers who may find Wi-Fi-only connections emotionally isolating. "Even within your own neighborhood, you feel alone," says Jane Little of the influential romance blog Dear Author. In an Amish inspirational, "we're all one big family," she says. Professor Regis points out that since the 19th century, American women have devoured sentimental novels celebrating faith and family, hearth and home. But unlike, say, Little House on the Prairie, fans don't need to time- travel to see the Amish. They only need visit tourist-friendly Lancaster, Pa., to witness the Amish in action, which adds to the genre's allure. "Here you have this agrarian society that is closed to outsiders right in the middle of the Northeast," says Wendell. "It's both historical and contemporary." And popular: On Sept. 7, Beverly Lewis, queen of the genre, will launch a series called The Rose Trilogy with The Thorn (Bethany House, $14.99). Set in Lancaster, the series follows two very different sisters. An impulsive marriage to the non-Amish Brandon has thrust Hen into the modern world, from whose alien, materialist values she wants to shield her young daughter. Meanwhile, dutiful Rose is torn between two suitors. More titles on the way Also hitting stores: •Cindy Woodsmall's The Bridge of Peace (WaterBrook, $13.99, Aug. 31). Book 2 in Woodsmall's Ada's House series focuses on dedicated Amish schoolteacher Lena Kauffman as she struggles to help a rebellious male student. Meanwhile, an Amish husband named Grey Graber tries to mend a marriage grown cold. •Wanda Brunstetter's Lydia's Charm (Barbour, $14.99, Sept. 1). After the death of her husband, an Amish woman moves to Charm, Ohio, to help her mother care for her grandfather. Gifts from a mysterious admirer begin to arrive on her porch. •Shelley Shepard Gray's Autumn's Promise (Avon Inspired, $12.99, in stores). A 24-year-old Amish man and a 19-year-old "English" (what the Amish call the non-Amish) woman with a past fall in love. Harlequin has three Love Inspired Amish titles coming: Two from Patricia Davids —The Doctor's Blessing (a non-Amish M.D. and Amish nurse-midwife clash) and An Amish Christmas— plus Courting Ruth by Emma Miller. For many readers, the novels' appeal is what they don't include — things like graphic violence and profanity. "A lot of people say I just want to get away to a place where it's quiet, where people are thoughtful and respect each other, where they go to bed when the sun goes down," says Steve Oates, vice president of marketing at Bethany House, which publishes Lewis. Another thing Amish inspirationals lack: sexual content. Even the Marquis de Sade might blush at some of today's more frisky romance covers, but combine romance and Amish? Forget "bonnet rippers" with bearded love studs and rocking buggies — a shy girl in a white cloth cap is the traditional inspirational jacket fare. For Beverly Lewis, pushing the envelope means writing about an unmarried Amish woman letting her hair down in front of a man. But with 12 million of her Amish novels in print, she hardly lacks for fans. "Discretion can be pretty powerful," says the Colorado writer. Lewis started the craze for all things Amish in 1997 when she published The Shunning. The novel was inspired by the true story of Lewis' grandmother, who broke with her strict Old Order Mennonite family to marry a Bible College student. (The Amish are an offshoot of the Mennonites.) To date, The Shunning (the title refers to the ostracizing of Amish who rebel against the sect's strictures) has sold more than 1 million copies. Lewis has written more than 80 books, including 23 Amish novels. Her most recent Amish novel, The Telling, made its debut in April at No. 33 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list. The daughter of an Assembly of God minister, Lewis grew up in Lancaster. Although not Amish, Lewis says that because of her extended family, "I have deep roots in the Plain community." (Almost none of the authors writing these books are Amish.) Lewis says "readers tell me my books make them feel less stressed. It's a slower-paced world ... where people know how to talk to each other." Even more exotic to most secular Americans are the values the Amish cherish: humility, obedience and pacifism. (The Amish are conscientious objectors.) "It's about submission to God, the church, the bishop, your father, your family, then to each other in a community setting," says Lewis. And if you are a woman, "it means surrendering your will to your older brother and to your husband if you marry." "They take their Scripture straight up," says Lewis, pointing out how in 2006 the Amish astonished the world by forgiving the gunman who shot and killed five little girls at a one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa., then reached out to the killer's widow and family. Outsider view With their spiritual focus and emphasis on turning away from the secular world, Amish inspirationals are enormously popular with evangelical Christian readers. "These books affirm the importance of living a Godly life," says Dear Author's Little. Little is not a fan of the books, believing that they inaccurately romanticize Amish culture. She's not alone. In Ohio, some Amish leaders have banned members from reading the books. Out of respect for the Amish, Lewis' novels are not sold on amishbooks.org, says general manager David Bercot. While Bercot is not Amish, he has friends who are. "They feel her novels do not present a realistic portrayal of the Amish way of life and way of thinking," he says. The problem isn't the idea of Amish romance — his website sells Linda Byler's Amish romance novels, for instance. Rather, it's Lewis' "English," or outsider, perspective, that's an issue. But whether Amish communities like it or not, "it's a genre that is here to stay," says Bethany's Oates. And now mystery writers are boarding the best-seller buggy. Hitting stores Sept. 28 is P.L. Gaus' Blood of the Prodigal the first in a six-book Amish-Country Mysteries series being reissued by Plume. In December, look for Marta Perry's Murder in Plain Sight. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more ||||| Two missing Amish girls in northern New York were found alive Thursday night and the Amber Alert for them was canceled.
Applause erupted at the search command center when word came of their recovery.
The girls, Delila Miller, 6, and Fannie Miller, 12, went to wait on a customer at the family's roadside stand Wednesday night in Oswegatchie, a rural town located near the Canadian border. Police said a witness saw a vehicle put something in the backseat. When the car drove away, the witness told police the children were gone.
The sisters were dropped off in the town of Richville, about 36 miles from where they were abducted, District Attorney Mary Rain said. The girls walked to the closest home and the man who opened the door immediately knew who the girls were because of news reports.
WSYR
The girls asked the man to take them home, Rain told ABC News.
"The girls walked up to a stranger's house, thank goodness they had enough courage to do that, knocked on the door, and that person took them home," Rain said.
The two young girls have been reunited with their family. They "seem to be healthy," but were "cold and wet," the DA told ABC News, and that they are being interviewed by authorities.
Rain said the sisters were still wearing Amish attire when they were found. She also said that more than one person may have been involved in the girls' abduction.
The search for the girls was complicated because police did not have any photos of the girls to display because the Amish way of life does not allow for photography.
The girls' family agreed to work with a sketch artist on an image of the elder child.
Cops: 'Numerous Leads' in Search for 2 Amish Girls
"It's a belief within the Amish community, so we did really well to get this sketch," St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells said.
He added that it was the family's decision to not have an artist's rendering of their younger girl.
Another barrier was that the family speaks mainly Pennsylvania Dutch, a traditional language of the Amish, authorities said. The girls have heavy accents though the 12-year-old speaks English, Wells told the local ABC affiliate.
Wells said it was "a very short period of time" between when the family realized the girls were missing and when authorities were notified.
He said police were alerted from a call made at an English-speaking residence that owns a telephone. Amish families do not have modern conveniences such as telephones, let alone cell phones.
Despite the cultural differences, Wells said the community rallied together to help search for the missing girls.
"This is something that's against what we all believe in," he said. | – Getting tired of True Blood? If sex-soaked entertainment has lost some of its punch, you might look to the pure, simple pleasures of Amish life and love. That's right: Amish romance novels are flying off the shelves as readers find that nothing scintillates like the chaste. "It's a huge, huge, huge trend," says one expert on romance fiction. Popular series like Beverly Lewis' Seasons of Grace and Cindy Woodsmall's Sisters of the Quilt are set in the hardcore Amish communities that shun driving and electricity. For those writers, pushing the envelope is a scene in which an unmarried Amish woman lets down her hair in the presence of a man. "Readers get to peer inside the Amish community, and it is not like our own," an English professor tells USA Today. "Simplicity is a hallmark of that community, and simplicity is powerful." |
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/ Source: TODAY By Aly Walansky
Many people have a weakness for a certain type candy, but one man is claiming that his affinity for black licorice likely contributed to him getting heart disease — and now he’s suing one of the world's largest candy companies.
David Goldberg, a 73-year-old man from New York City, has filed a lawsuit against the Hershey Company (the parent company of Twizzlers), alleging that although he is an otherwise healthy individual, he was not properly warned about the potential dangers of frequently consuming his favorite candy: black licorice.
The lawsuit states that while Goldberg had been “consuming at least one standard size bag [of black licorice candy] per week” for years, the bags contained no warnings of potential health risks and “that consumption of the black licorice product can lead to heart conditions.”
Black licorice is one of the most divisive candies out there. Shutterstock stock
Goldberg claims in the suit that while he stills suffers from heart issues today, he is otherwise a “healthy individual who is not obese” and “has never had any heart conditions,” according to documents filed in Manhattan's Supreme Court in October.
Though Hershey's products may not contain any visible warnings, in October 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did issue a warning that glycyrrhizin, a naturally occurring ingredient in black licorice, does put older adults at risk for heart issues. At the time, the FDA stated, "If you’re 40 or older, eating 2 ounces of black licorice a day for at least two weeks could land you in the hospital with an irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia."
The lawsuit blames the Hershey Company for failing to disclose this information to consumers stating, “Defendant knew for years that its black licorice candy posed a health threat,” but did not warn consumers they were putting themselves at risk by buying and eating it.
In 2017, Goldberg was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and put on medication. The suit claims that since his diagnosis, the plaintiff “has stopped eating black licorice, however his condition has not improved."
But is the licorice really to blame here?
"The ingredients are listed on the package so that consumers are aware of what they are putting into their bodies," Emily Clarke, a registered nurse who works at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, (and has not treated Goldberg) told TODAY Food. "It's our responsibility to research those ingredients, educate ourselves and understand healthy food choices."
In Clarke's opinion, the licorice alone was likely not enough to cause the condition. She added that "one food choice doesn't cause heart disease. It would take a string of poor consumption choices and possibly genetics, along with a handful of other factors about this man's lifestyle."
When reached via email, a representative for Hershey's provided TODAY Food with the following statement: "We are not going to comment on the specific claims as this is pending litigation, but all of our products are safe to eat and formulated in full compliance with FDA regulations, including the agency’s regulation affirming the safety of licorice extract for use in food."
Hershey's black licorice does contain licorice extract, which the company says is derived from a "natural flavor obtained from the root of the licorice plant."
Regardless of health concerns, licorice still remains a divisive candy across social media, with many either loving or hating its pungent anise flavor.
Litigation connecting food to potential health risks continues to make headlines. LaCroix has recently been sued over claims that its "natural" sparkling water contains insecticides and Canada Dry has been sued over its Ginger Ale not actually containing pure ginger root. ||||| A Manhattan man’s weekly black licorice fix gave him heart disease, the sweet-toothed 73-year-old claims in a new lawsuit that blames the Hershey Company for making the irresistible treats.
David Goldberg is a “healthy individual who is not obese” and “has never had any heart conditions,” he says in Manhattan Supreme Court papers.
see also Black licorice is bad for your heart, FDA warns Black licorice can be more of a trick than a...
But he’s got a weakness for black licorice-flavored Twizzlers, “consuming at least one standard size bag per week” of the twisty-chewy ropes for “years,” he admits in the suit.
The one-pound bags contained no warnings “that consumption of the black licorice product can lead to heart conditions” so Goldberg munched away.
But in October 2017 the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning that glycyrrhizin — which occurs naturally in black licorice — could prompt heart problems for adults over 40.
“Defendant knew for years that its black licorice candy posed a health threat,” yet didn’t warn consumers, the suit says.
Last year Goldberg was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and put on medication.
He “has stopped eating black licorice, however his condition has not improved,” the suit says.
So he’s suing Hershey’s for unspecified damages.
A spokesman for the confectioner said, “We are not going to comment on the specific claims as this is pending litigation, but all of our products are safe to eat and formulated in full compliance with FDA regulations, including the agency’s regulation affirming the safety of licorice extract for use in food.” | – Should black licorice come with a warning label? According to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, consumption of the candy is responsible for a case of heart disease. David Goldberg, 73, is suing the Hershey Company, claiming that his weekly habit of eating "at least one standard size bag per week" of the candy maker's black licorice Twizzlers for years is responsible for his atrial fibrillation that was diagnosed last year, the New York Post reports. After all, the FDA has warned that glycyrrhizin, a compound present in licorice, can cause a variety of heart issues. "[Hershey] knew for years that its black licorice candy posed a health threat" but didn't warn anyone, claims Goldberg, who is on medication and has since kicked the licorice habit, "however his condition has not improved." At lease one nurse, who is unrelated to Goldberg's case, is dubious about his claims. "One food choice doesn't cause heart disease," RN Emily Clarke of University Hospital in Newark, N.J., tells Today. "It would take a string of poor consumption choices and possibly genetics." And, she adds, the ingredients are on the package — "It's our responsibility to research those ingredients." As for Hershey, which does concede that Twizzlers contains licorice root extract, "We are not going to comment on the specific claims as this is pending litigation." But, the company says, its products are safe to eat. If you're a lover of licorice, check out the FDA's safe eating recommendations here. (Pregnant women might want to stay away from licorice, too.) |
Tyra Banks might be ending her talk show, but that doesn’t mean she’s out of ideas. Tyra recently announced her latest project—a modeling competition for plus-size teens only, called the Fiercely Real Teen Model Search. “I’ve always felt it was my mission to expand the narrow perceptions of beauty ... I challenge industry and universal standards by featuring and celebrating non-traditional beauty, and stressing that true beauty is both inside and out,” she told Us Weekly. So TyTy is calling on teens between the ages of 13 and 19 to enter her modeling competition. The contestants must wear a dress size of 12 to 20. And shorties need not apply—only teens who are between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet 1 inch tall will be considered. Tyra will announce the finalists on the March 2 episode of the “The Tyra Show,” and the winner will be revealed the next day on the talk show.
This competition is her way of eliminating the negative connotations associated with “plus-size.” “I want young girls to realize that what’s considered plus-sized is the average American woman,” she added. “That woman is healthy, fit and beautiful. Adolescence is such an impressionable time in a young woman’s life, and I hope this contest helps teen girls discover their own beauty from the inside out.” If that were really true, why hasn’t Tyra done a full season of plus-size models on “America’s Next Top Model”? Plus-size teens can enter the competition here. ||||| America's Next Top Teen Model?
Tyra Banks announced her latest modeling competition -- the first-ever "fiercely real" plus-sized teen model search.
The talk show host, 36, made the announcement on The Tyra Show on Monday and put out a call for women between the ages of 13 and 19 to enter.
The only requirements? The teens must have a dress size of 12 to 20 and stand 5'9"- 6'1" tall, she told UsMagazine.com in a statement.
See modeling shots of Angelina Jolie when she was only 16 years old!
"I've always felt it was my mission to expand the narrow perceptions of beauty," she told Us. "Through America's Next Top Model, True Beauty and The Tyra Show, I challenge industry and universal standards by featuring and celebrating non-traditional beauty, and stressing that true beauty is both inside and out."
Banks said she was unhappy that the term "plus-sized" has such a "negative connotation" in today's society.
See photos of another variety of plus-sized models -- pregnant supermodels!
"I want young girls to realize that what's considered plus-sized is the average American woman," Banks said. "That woman is healthy, fit and beautiful. Adolescence is such an impressionable time in a young woman's life, and I hope this contest helps teen girls discover their own beauty from the inside out."
Look back at contestants from America's Next Top Model
The finalists will be introduced on the March 2 episode of her talk show, and the winner of the Fiercely Real Teen Model Search will be crowned the following day. The winner will receive a one-year modeling contract and a spread in a major fashion magazine.
For more information, check out The Tyra Show's official site. | – Tyra Banks is jumping on the plus-size model bandwagon with a new modeling competition—the Fiercely Real Teen Model Search. “I've always felt it was my mission to expand the narrow perceptions of beauty,” she tells Us. Teens with dress sizes between 12 and 20 who stand 5'9" to 6'1" tall are eligible to compete for a one-year modeling contract and a spread in a major fashion magazine. “I want young girls to realize that what's considered plus-sized is the average American woman,” Banks says. “That woman is healthy, fit, and beautiful.” For more details, including how to enter, click here. |
The Navy and Marine Corps’ new ‘Star Wars’-style weapon made its debut in the nation’s capital this week.
The Electromagnetic Railgun, developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) with BAE Systems, has the potential to revolutionize naval warfare.
The weapon was on display to the public for the first time at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology EXPO at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Wednesday and Thursday. The biennial event showcases the latest advances in power projection and force protection, including this year’s star - the EM Railgun.
To defend ships, conduct surface warfare against enemy vessels and support U.S. Marines and ground forces, EM Railgun-armed ships will be able to fire hypervelocity projectiles giving US forces even greater reach and lethality.
The EM Railgun is one immensely powerful weapon.
How does it work?
The EM Railgun launcher is a long-range weapon that uses electromagnetic energy, instead of conventional chemical propellants, to fire projectiles.
The ship generates electricity and this electricity is stored over several seconds in the pulsed power system and an electric pulse is sent to the railgun.
It gets its name from its use of rails. High electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor between two rails and this creates magnetic fields to launch projectiles.
The electromagnetic force is so powerful that it launches the projectile up to Mach 6, firing projectiles farther and faster than current options. These projectiles reach an amazing 4,500 mph and precisely hit targets more than 100 miles away.
Mach 6 is more than six times the speed of sound.
To put how fast that is in context, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has built the fastest manned airplane, the Blackbird, and that flies around Mach 3.
Once launched, the projectile uses its extreme speed, the kinetic energy, rather than conventional explosives to destroy targets on land, at sea or in the air.
And to put the improved distance in perspective, the current Mk 45 naval gun mount has a range of about 13 nautical miles with conventional ammunition.
What does it fire?
With ONR, BAE Systems is developing the next-generation HVP, Hyper Velocity Projectile, that can be fired by the EM Railgun and future models of railguns.
The HVP will also be compatible with current weapons systems like the Navy 5-Inch Mk 45, and Navy, Marine Corps, and Army 155-mm Tube Artillery systems.
It’s designed to be a guided projectile with low drag for high-velocity, maneuverability and decreased time-to-target. It has advanced guidance electronics and in flight, the HVP will be 24 inches long and weigh 28 pounds. The ammunition will be easy to handle and transport.
The Navy’s EM Railgun will fire 10 of these rounds per minute. When fired with an Mk 45 the HVP will be 20 rounds per minute and extend range to 50 nautical miles.
What are the advantages?
Railguns are a smart alternative to current large artillery and this weapon represents significant advances in U.S. Navy and Marine Corps capabilities.
It also provides additional benefits like enhancing safety aboard surface ships while greatly reducing cost.
Since this system that does not use gunpowder or propellant to fire the projectile, it reduces the need for high explosives to be carried on ships and the related hazards in doing so.
Off the ship, the EM Railgun will improve safety as well. Since it uses its extreme speed on impact, the danger of unexploded ordnance on the battlefield will be reduced.
Another key advantage is cost. Railgun projectiles are a mere fraction of the cost of those currently used in missile engagements – possibly even one percent of the cost of today’s missile systems.
Achieving this “Star Wars” - style weapon has not been easy. For years, many programs have sought to build such a powerful weapon, but a design that works, and works on a practical level, has been incredibly difficult to crack. Generating the power necessary to accelerate rail gun projectiles and creating materials capable of resisting the extreme temperatures generated are just two of the enormous obstacles a successful railgun needs to overcome.
Development of ONR’s Electromagnetic Railgun began about ten years ago. Phase I focused on developing the launcher, pulsed power, and risk reduction for the projectile. In 2012, Phase II began further advancing the technology, such as a firing rate of 10 rounds per minute.
What’s next?
The railgun program continues to perform impressively and is on track for its scheduled at-sea testing next year.
Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie. ||||| The railgun, a futuristic electromagnetic weapon that can fire a projectile at seven times the speed of sound, made its public debut at the the U.S. Navy's Science and Technology Expo. (Reuters)
First it mounted a laser aboard a ship in the Persian Gulf. Now the Navy has publicly unveiled another futuristic weapon: the electromagnetic “rail gun.”
In development for years, the weapon would be able to fire a projectile at Mach 7, or seven times the speed of sound, hitting targets 110 miles away. (By comparison, a Hellfire missile travels a little over Mach 1.)
Instead of gunpowder as a propellant, it uses electromagnetic pulses, and the projectiles hit with such overwhelming force that they don’t need to be armed with explosives. The impact from traveling at such amazing speeds is enough, thank you very much. Lasers sizzle rather than go boom, as some have said. The rail gun definitely has one heck of a boom.
The gun made its debut at the Navy’s Future Force Science and Technology Expo at the Washington Convention Center this week.
One top Navy official recently likened the impact to “a freight train going through the wall at a hundred miles an hour.” The lack of gunpowder and explosive warheads eliminates some significant safety hazards for Navy crews, officials say.
By the way, here’s video of that laser:
The Navy is unveiling a laser weapons capability that can be used aboard ships at sea. (U.S. Navy)
[RELATED: With photos and video, Navy shows how its new laser gun works at sea] | – The Navy's latest weapon is an electromagnetic "railgun" designed to fire projectiles fast and far without using gunpowder as a propellant, the Washington Post reports. Unveiled at a Navy expo this week, the weapon uses electromagnetic impulses to shoot projectiles at up to seven times the speed of sound, creating a force so powerful that no explosive warheads are needed. The impact is like "a freight train going through a wall at a hundred miles an hour," says a top Navy official. It's also far cheaper than other missile engagement systems, and should reduce risk on surface ships because explosives aren't required, Fox News reports. How it works: The railgun draws electricity from a ship and fires projectiles using electromagnetic energy. Under the hood, a sliding metal conductor accelerated by an electrical current runs along the weapon's two metal rails, charging up magnetic fields that fire projectiles. But the gun requires 34 mega joules of power to launch a single 23-pound projectile more than 100 miles at Mach 7, and most destroyers don't have that kind of power in reserve yet, the Navy Times reports. What's more, engineers will need months or even years to link the railgun to the combat system on cruisers and destroyers. The Navy plans to give the weapon its first sea-test next year. The Navy's other cool new toy is a laser that it fired from a vessel for the first time in December. |
A proposal photo blew up across the internet on Saturday thanks to a happy bystander pictured in the photo's background.
Carlos Jair, a Twitter user from Houston, Texas, shared a photo of the moment his sister proposed to her girlfriend at the Art Institute of Chicago. In his tweet, he drew attention to the delighted older woman smiling at the happy couple.
My sister proposed to her GF today and look at that older woman's reaction pic.twitter.com/ifFl3mJNAr — Carlos🖤Shook (@AreYouShook) December 18, 2016
His sister Jessica tells news.com.au that she and the photographer were looking over photos taken the day of the proposal when they noticed the woman's sweet reaction.
"It really made that photo even more special," she told news.com.au.
Carlos's tweet garnered more than 276,000 likes, more than 89,000 retweets and even drew a congratulatory note from Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James.
Everything about this photo FTW. #LoveIsLove Congratulations to your sister and her GF @AreYouShook https://t.co/F45DE74PuG — E L James (@E_L_James) December 18, 2016
A few hours after Carlos posted the photo, Jessica shared the couple's proposal video.
Our Proposal Video at The Art Institute of Chicago #LoveIsLove @areyoushook https://t.co/rGP0PV3D2f — Jess R (@Its_Jess_Rdgz) December 18, 2016
She's also asked for Twitter's help in finding the woman who made their photo such a massive success.
I think someone knows the woman in our photo. If you do please give her our thanks! She made our photo much more special 😍❤️😍❤️😍❤️#FramingIt — Jess R (@Its_Jess_Rdgz) December 19, 2016 ||||| A stranger’s incredible reaction to a same-sex marriage proposal has melted the internet’s ice cold heart.
Jessica Rodriguez proposed to her long-term girlfriend, Chelsea Miller, this weekend at an art gallery in Chicago.
Rodriguez had arranged to have the public proposal captured on camera, but she could never have planned the epic reaction from an older woman who was sitting nearby.
The woman, who was sat in a chair reading when the proposal took place, was snapped holding her heart and gasping delightedly. ||||| KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The look on Seth Dixon’s face as he proposed to his girlfriend said it all, but not in the way you might think.
According to a post on wedding photographer Staci Dabney’s Facebook page, Dixon had taken his girlfriend, Ruth Salas, to Loose Park to ask her one of the most important questions in both of their lives.
"We've been dating for almost four years and we knew this day was coming," he explained.
The setting was as picturesque as it gets. Imagine a beautiful wooden bridge stretching over a pond with gorgeous fall weather and lush greenery creating a dreamy background.
"I knew I wanted to propose (at Loose Park) just because it's kind of our spot," Dixon explained. "We just kind of fell in love with the park and the beauty of it."
Of course, cameras were rolling as Dixon fell to his knee.
"Next thing you know, it's happening. I couldn't believe it," Salas explained. "At first, I was like, 'Oh my goodness. This is happening. He's on one knee.'"
Excitement was written all over his and Salas’ faces, but their expressions soon turned to looks of horror.
Dixon opened the little black box to reveal the ring… just before it flipped out of his hands, through a tiny crack in the boards of the bridge, and into that pond below.
"It ping-ponged through the crack and I hear it plop in the water," Salas said. "I didn't know what else to think but, 'Oh my goodness.'"
Friends of the couple got to work to try to find the ring, donning goggles and other swimming gear to search the neck-deep water for the lost band.
Maddie Villareal, a longtime friend of Dixon, was one of the people who helped in the search.
"The bottom was the worst part because it was like slimy, muddy and there were sticks everywhere," she explained. "I know (finding the ring) was important to them. If it was me, I would hope they would do it for me."
They sadly were not able to find it, so instead set up a GoFundMe page to help the couple purchase a new one.
Amazingly, the couple now maintains a positive spirit following the incident.
"It's been a roller coaster. Emotions have been up and down," Dixon said. "After seeing the video over and over we just started laughing about it."
Moving forward, the couple said the ring incident would add to the story of their relationship.
"We've been together for four years with ups and downs," Salas explained. "I'm not leaving him because of a lost ring."
Dixon and Salas are set to tie the knot in October | – Sometimes it's the honest, unedited reaction to a moment that gets the greatest applause. Such is the case in a proposal photo now being widely shared. Carlos Jair took several pictures of his sister Jessica Rodriguez proposing to her long-term girlfriend Chelsea Miller at the Art Institute of Chicago last weekend. It was a dressy affair, a knee bent, a ring presented, people cheered—but in looking at his photos later, Jair and his sister noticed one image in particular, which captures a third woman's reaction in the background, reports Mashable. Her mouth is wide open, her right hand reaching toward her heart. She looks utterly delighted. Says Rodriguez: "It really made that photo even more special." Jair posted the photo to Twitter with the caption: "My sister proposed to her GF today and look at that older woman's reaction." It's been retweeted more than 105,000 times and liked more than 330,000. A video of the proposal posted to YouTube has more than 50,000 views, and only eight thumbs down. Reactions range from "most stylish couple ever" to "I'm crying" and even "this gave me life." Many noted the "lady in pink" in particular, with one woman writing: "The lady in the pink represents us, the silent and loving majority of Sr Citizens. We are there for you. Congratulations." And the Huffington Post summed it up this way: The third woman's reaction "melted the internet’s ice cold heart." (See what happened when two nuns fell in love.) |
U.S. stocks declined, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down for a second day, amid concern Europe’s debt crisis is deepening and after a Chinese central-bank adviser said the nation’s economic growth may slow further.
All 10 S&P 500 groups fell as commodity shares had the biggest losses. The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index of the most-traded Chinese shares in the U.S. sank 2.1 percent. McDonald’s (MCD) Corp. slid 2.9 percent as profit trailed estimates. S&P 500 futures expiring in September lost 0.4 percent to 1,338.30 at 5:53 p.m. New York time as Moody’s Investors Service lowered the outlooks for Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
About five stocks fell for each rising on U.S. exchanges. The S&P 500 fell 0.9 percent to 1,350.52 at 4 p.m. in New York, paring a loss of 1.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 101.11 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,721.46. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 14 percent to 18.62. Volume for exchange-listed stocks in the U.S. was 6.4 billion shares, or 3.9 percent below the three-month average.
“Investors are on edge,” said Russ Koesterich, the San Francisco-based global chief investment strategist for the IShares unit of BlackRock Inc. His firm oversees $3.56 trillion. “Chinese growth has slowed. It’s not clear that the existing firewalls in Europe are large enough. We knew the Spanish regional governments had debt. The question is: how bad is it?”
Stocks fell as Spain’s 10-year bond yields rose to a euro-era high on bets more of its regions will ask for aid. Greece’s creditors meet this week, while German Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler said he’s “very skeptical” European leaders will be able to rescue the nation. A Chinese central bank adviser said the country’s growth may cool to 7.4 percent this quarter.
‘Rising Uncertainty’
After the market closed, Moody’s said it lowered Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg’s Aaa credit rating outlooks to negative, citing “rising uncertainty” about Europe’s debt crisis. Risks that Greece may leave the 17-nation euro currency and “increasing likelihood” of collective support for European countries such as Spain and Italy were among reasons for the change, Moody’s said today in a statement.
Concern about a global slowdown has led investors to a more defensive stance since the S&P 500’s 2012 high in April. Phone, utility, consumer staple and health-care companies were the only ones to gain among 10 groups during that period. Financial shares have slumped 11 percent, the most in the S&P 500.
The Morgan Stanley (MS) Cyclical Index of companies most-tied tied to the economy lost 1.2 percent today. Alcoa Inc. (AA), the largest U.S. aluminum producer, slid 1.5 percent to $8.14. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), the biggest software maker, dropped 2.8 percent to $29.28. Citigroup Inc. (C) fell 2.1 percent to $25.34.
Earnings Season
Investors also watched corporate results. Sales rose an average 3 percent in the second quarter among 123 members of the S&P 500 that have reported results so far, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Only 41 percent of the reported companies have topped analysts’ estimates on sales, while 73 percent have beaten on profit, the data show.
McDonald’s slipped 2.9 percent to $88.94. The restaurant chain also said it may miss its full-year operating income growth target. Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson, who took the helm earlier this month, has struggled to lure budget-conscious Americans with a new extra-value menu. Sales at stores open at least 13 months in the U.S. rose 3.6 percent, the slowest growth in five quarters.
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) retreated 1.8 percent to $16.07. The company said it is eliminating about 1,300 jobs, or 2 percent of the workforce, part of an effort to eliminate costs and streamline decision making.
Apple’s Results
Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 0.1 percent to $603.83. The world’s largest company by market value reports quarterly results tomorrow. With a redesigned model probably arriving by October, analysts estimate that sales of iPhones -- Apple’s biggest source of revenue -- slid in the fiscal third quarter from prior periods. While analysts predict that the next iPhone will be the best-selling smartphone yet from Apple, the purchasing delays will probably weigh down results until the device hits stores.
Facebook Inc. (FB) dropped less than 0.1 percent to $28.75. The biggest social-networking company reports results this week. Sales probably rose 30 percent to $1.16 billion in the June period, according to analyst predictions compiled by Bloomberg. That would be the slowest growth rate yet disclosed by the company co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004.
Nine out of 11 stocks in a measure of homebuilders in S&P indexes advanced. U.S. homebuilders are an attractive investment as the housing market starts a “strong” recovery that may drive a surge in new-home sales, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a report today. KB Home (KBH) added 3.6 percent to $10.16. PulteGroup Inc. (PHM) rose 1.4 percent to $11.01.
Higher Margins
Hasbro Inc. (HAS) climbed 4 percent to $35.19. The world’s second-largest toymaker reported second-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates as price increases boosted margins.
Halliburton Co. (HAL) rallied 2.4 percent to $31.51. The world’s largest provider of hydraulic-fracturing services said international sales climbed as the rig count and profit margin grew in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Eaton Corp. rose 3.9 percent to $40.57. Its U.S. electrical equipment sales rose ahead of the company’s expansion in the industry through the acquisition of Cooper Industries Plc.
U.S. shares of Nexen Inc. surged 52 percent to $25.90. Cnooc Ltd. agreed to pay $15.1 billion in cash for Calgary-based Nexen in the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese company.
NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) jumped 8.1 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $19.52. Its $1.7 billion agreement to buy GenOn Energy Inc. would create the largest U.S. independent electricity generator with more market strength to withstand slumping power prices. GenOn surged 26 percent to $2.29.
Other Deals
RailAmerica Inc. advanced 9.8 percent to $27.25, the highest since it went public in 2009. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. agreed to purchase it for $1.39 billion to combine North America’s two largest short-line and regional rail operators.
Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. gained 28 percent to $73.05. Joh. A. Benckiser agreed to buy Peet’s, giving the closely held German holding company about 190 specialty cafes in the U.S. and access to an expanding grocery business.
Better-than-forecast earnings are masking weaker sales growth in the most recent quarter as U.S. companies improve margins to top estimates.
The gap in results signals companies may hold off hiring and expanding until demand rebounds globally. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told lawmakers last week that progress in reducing unemployment may be “frustratingly slow” with joblessness stuck above 8 percent since February 2009.
Lower Forecasts
Analysts have lowered predictions for profit and revenue in recent months. For earnings, they estimate a 1.6 percent decline on average among all S&P 500 members after anticipating a 0.5 percent increase in May. Revenue may rise 1.8 percent on average, down from a 3.7 percent estimate in May.
“People are sitting on the sidelines right now waiting to see what happens,” Verizon Communications Inc. Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said in a telephone interview last week after the New York-based company reported in-line second-quarter profit and sales. “This isn’t helping with growth, so I think we will continue to mosey along here in the states.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Rita Nazareth in New York at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at [email protected] ||||| The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished a wild Wednesday sharply lower, but the stock market recouped much of the losses that briefly sent the Dow tumbling more than 450 points.
Heavy waves of selling hit stocks early on Wednesday, marking an acceleration of the recent selloff sparked by fears of a global economic slowdown, dangerously low inflation in Europe and ripples from a steep drop in oil prices.
The Dow industrials declined 173.45 points, or 1.1%, to close at 16141.74, but earlier the index had declined as many as 460 points.
U.S. stocks tumbled on Wednesday, driving the Dow down over 300 points. What can calm the markets? Silvercrest's Patrick Chovanec discusses with Sara Murray. Photo: Getty
Recently hard-hit corners of the market rebounded to finish in positive territory. The Russell 2000 Index of small U.S. companies turned positive to finish up 1% after a stretch of sharp declines. Energy stocks also rallied.
Traders said wide swings across stock and bond markets appeared to be magnified by hedge funds frantically looking to exit money-losing investments. Wednesday’s dismal trading had the hallmarks of forced selling by managers who were pressured to unwind risky bets that were losing money fast.
After days of persistent selling, buyers materialized Wednesday afternoon to boost the market off its lows in trading volume that was the heaviest in nearly three years, with 11.77 billion shares changing hands.
“Late in the day here I think we’re seeing stronger hands starting to take positions based on valuations,” said Eric Schlanger, head of equities for the Americas at Barclays.
The S&P 500 fell 15.21 points, or 0.8%, to 1862.69, while the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 11.85 points, or 0.3%, to 4215.32. Since hitting an all-time high on Sept. 18, the S&P 500 is down 7.4%.
Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors, which manages $350 billion, told some of the firm’s biggest clients on a conference call this morning not to panic despite the recent downdraft.
“I see the noise and it’s ugly,” Mr. Orlando said. “But understand the big picture: if you’re a long-term investor with the ability to look out beyond a few years, you’ll look back and say, this was a chance to pick up stocks I missed on the way up.”
As stocks sold off, investors flocked to safe-haven government bonds, though bond yields rose off of earlier lows. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped to 2.091%, from 2.206% late on Tuesday, after briefly falling below 2% for the first time since June 2013. Yields fall as prices rise.
Swings extended to U.S. crude-oil futures, where prices extended recent losses to settle down 0.1% to $81.78 a barrel.
“A lot of people, even the most experienced guys, are dazed by this price action,” said Michael Purves, head of equity derivatives research at Weeden & Co.
In recent weeks, traders have said flows have been dominated by short-term traders and hedge funds with high-conviction bets in the energy sector and other hard-hit corners of the market. Other investors who generate buy and sell signals from readings of market momentum have been flipping from stock exchange-traded funds into bonds or cash, traders have said.
After falling early Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was on track for a five-session losing streak. Traders work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Associated Press
Further evidence of concentrated losses appeared after pharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc. ABBV +0.89% AbbVie Inc. U.S.: NYSE $53.37 +0.47 +0.89% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 31.75M AFTER HOURS $53.37 0.00 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 140,562 P/E Ratio 20.53 Market Cap $84.20 Billion Dividend Yield 3.15% Rev. per Employee $770,320 10/17/14 Holman Jenkins: How Obama Kill... 10/17/14 Dept. of Irony: AbbVie Can Tak... 10/17/14 Quote of the Week: AbbVie’s Ab... More quote details and news » ABBV in Your Value Your Change Short position said it was reconsidering its planned $54 billion purchase of Shire SHPG +0.39% Shire PLC ADS U.S.: Nasdaq $179.16 +0.70 +0.39% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4.29M AFTER HOURS $178.70 -0.46 -0.25% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 205,989 P/E Ratio 30.34 Market Cap $35.12 Billion Dividend Yield 0.13% Rev. per Employee $1,046,870 10/17/14 Holman Jenkins: How Obama Kill... 10/17/14 Dept. of Irony: AbbVie Can Tak... 10/17/14 Deals of the Day: Scars From A... More quote details and news » SHPG in Your Value Your Change Short position PLC because of new U.S. tax rules. Shares of AbbVie rose 0.9% in New York, while Shire tumbled 22% in London.
Traders said the drop has affected many hedge funds that had crowded into Shire. As of Sept. 24, the top eight hedge-fund holders of Shire shares had some $8 billion in investments riding on the deal, according to regulatory filings.
“There’s a lot of pain out there,” said Dave Lutz, head of exchange-traded fund trading at JonesTrading Institutional Services.
Shares of airlines fell sharply after reports that the second Texas health-care worker to be diagnosed with Ebola flew from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport the night before she reported symptoms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. United Continental Holdings Inc. UAL +2.08% United Continental Holdings Inc. U.S.: NYSE $44.68 +0.91 +2.08% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4.64M AFTER HOURS $44.58 -0.10 -0.22% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2,107 P/E Ratio 23.52 Market Cap $16.19 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $443,471 10/15/14 U.S. Stocks Slide But Come Off... 10/15/14 For Ebola’s Market Impact, Fol... 10/14/14 Market Swoon Bruises Some Hedg... More quote details and news » UAL in Your Value Your Change Short position fell 1.4%, while Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL +3.21% Delta Air Lines Inc. U.S.: NYSE $34.39 +1.07 +3.21% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 21.39M AFTER HOURS $34.60 +0.21 +0.61% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 115,098 P/E Ratio 2.95 Market Cap $28.09 Billion Dividend Yield 1.05% Rev. per Employee $511,298 10/16/14 Delta Air Lines Sees No Effect... 10/16/14 Morning MoneyBeat: Was That Ca... 10/16/14 How Asian Airlines’ Pricey New... More quote details and news » DAL in Your Value Your Change Short position declined 1.2%.
In recent weeks, investors have said that they were looking forward to third-quarter corporate earnings season to deflect the market’s focus from growth concerns, Fed worries and headlines about the Middle East or the Ebola virus.
But these same headlines have stolen the show as major U.S. companies post their quarterly reports.
Bank of America Corp. BAC +0.81% Bank of America Corp. U.S.: NYSE $16.21 +0.13 +0.81% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 91.63M AFTER HOURS $16.21 0.00 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2.71M P/E Ratio 37.70 Market Cap $169.10 Billion Dividend Yield 1.23% Rev. per Employee $398,702 10/17/14 The Bond Market 10/17/14 Morgan Stanley’s 3Q Financial ... 10/16/14 U.S. to Boost Security for Gov... More quote details and news » BAC in Your Value Your Change Short position fell 4.6% after reporting a third-quarter profit of $168 million versus $2.5 billion a year ago. The bank posted a per-share loss of a penny, beating expectations.
Before the opening bell, the Empire State’s business conditions index fell to 6.17 in October from 27.54 in September, while retail sales fell 0.3% in September from August to $442.7 billion.
Separately, the U.S. producer-price index fell 0.1% in September from August, the Labor Department said. The surprise decline was the first in more than a year, and economists had expected a 0.1% increase.
—Corrie Driebusch, Saumya Vaishampayan and Alexandra Scaggs contributed to this article.
Write to Chris Dieterich at [email protected] ||||| Reuters Specialist traders on the New York Stock Exchange floor during the record intraday point decline. The Dow is back at its March 4 level.
A bad day in the financial markets was made worse by an apparent trading glitch, leaving traders and investors nervous and scratching their heads over how a mistake could send the Dow Jones Industrial Average into a 1,000-point tailspin.
At its afternoon low, the Dow had plummeted 998.50 points, its biggest intraday point drop ever. The swing from its intraday high was 1,010.14 points.
The Dow eventually rebounded to close down 347.80 points, or 3.2%, at 10520.32, its worst percentage decline since April 2009. Stocks from Dow components Procter & Gamble and 3M suffered precipitous declines. At one point shares of P&G tumbled 37%.
The markets were already on edge before the midafternoon collapse as traders watched televised scenes of rioting in Athens following the Greek government's approval of its portion of the European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout. The euro had tumbled to a new 14-month low and credit markets were showing signs of strain in Europe and the U.S.
Throughout the day, markets around the globe posted big declines as investors reacted with disappointment to the failure of the European Central Bank to signal any heightened concern about the spiraling Greek debt crisis.
Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 3.2% to 1128.15 Bond, commodity and currency markets were all roiled as investors fled from risky assets toward the safety of gold and Treasurys.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility index, or VIX, which tracks volatility in stock-index options, at one point soared 60% to nearly 40 and ended the day up nearly 32%.
Asian markets immediately opened down Friday. Japan's Nikkei fell more than 4% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell more than 3%.
After the gyrations, President Barack Obama was briefed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers on the situation in U.S. financial markets and the latest moves in Europe to cope with the debt crisis. An administration official said they discussed market structure and the government agencies looking into the crisis and its potential impact on the U.S. economy.
Dow Regains Some Ground View Slideshow Getty Images A man walks outside the New York Stock Exchange.
Traders were stunned by the sudden sharp moves. Regulators and exchanges announced probes into what they called unusual market activity.
"It was absolute chaos," said Steven Starker, co-founder of brokerage firm BTIG LLC, who said the trading in the volatile half-hour reminded him of the selloff during the market crash in October 1987.
"You sit there and stare at the screen and don't quite know what to make of it," said Mike Ryan, the chief investment officer for UBS Wealth Management Americas.
Representatives of major U.S. exchanges and the Securities and Exchange Commission convened an emergency conference call late Thursday to examine potentially erroneous trades in multiple stocks. The trades took place between 2:40 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. EDT, according to a notice from Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. Officials late in the day said any trades that were 60% away from the market price at 2:40 p.m. would be canceled.
About 300 stocks are expected to see canceled trades, but it is unknown how many trades would be broken. No exchange admitted on the conference call that it had seen trades mis-keyed into their systems, one exchange official said.
Interactive Graphic
Drawing particular attention were stocks that posted far bigger losses than the broad market. At least eight in the Standard & Poor's 1500-stock index fell to a price of one cent per share—essentially a 100% decline. Among them were Boston Beer, Exelon and Accenture.
With Accenture, for example, 20,365 shares changed hands at around $39.98 during the minute of 2:46 p.m., then another 68,516 shares were traded at $38 per share during the minute of 2:47. But then in the 2:49 p.m. minute, 66,277 shares traded at one cent. By 2:50 p.m., the stock was back up to $39.51.
Several more stocks dropped by more than 60%. Among the stocks in the S&P 1500, 15 stocks fell more than 50% from their day's high to their low and 61 stocks fell more than 20%.
Traders theorized that an initial trading error triggered a piling-on effect from computerized trading programs designed to sell when the market moves lower. At the same time, pre-set orders form individual traders and investors to sell on declines during market downturns were likely triggered.
PM Report: Stocks Plunge, Fear Returns 9:41 The News Hub panel -- Neal Lipschutz and David Wessel in New York and Dave Kansas in London -- discuss today's market plunge.
The volatile moves in many stocks likely triggered a wave of additional trades as hedges such as limit orders and options strategies kicked in. That could have caused the market to plunge further.
Among the big losers in the selloff were likely to be investors who had put limit orders on stocks they held. If an investor had placed a limit order with his broker to sell his P&G shares if the price fell to $50, then that sell order would have been triggered as the stock tumbled to its low of $39.97. The investor would have lost money on that sale and then lost again when the stock rebounded back to close at $60.76. Worse, if the investor had held the stock for a long time and had a gain, he would be hit with a tax bill on his profits.
Accelerating the declines, high-frequency hedge funds, which use computers to trade at super high speed, appeared to pull back from the market as prices collapsed. These hedge funds have grown to account for a significant amount of trading volume, and their absence likely created a void into which prices fell.
The move highlighted how fragile U.S. markets have become and how the various fragmented markets have deficiencies in the way they buffer volatility.
"This highlights the risks of electronic trading," says Louis Pastina, executive vice president and head of operations at NYSE Euronext's New York Stock Exchange. "When you have low volatility, electronic trading works very well. But there are risks. It highlights the need for human-based intervention."
Before the focus moved to the U.S. stock market, all eyes were on Europe, where investors bailed out of stocks, bonds and the euro.
Even as the Greek parliament approved the 110 billion euro ($145 billion) package, the common currency was falling to $1.2629, its lowest level since last March against the U.S. dollar.
European bond markets also reacted with big price declines on heavily indebted countries. The yield on Portuguese 10-year notes jumped to a new crisis high of 6.33%, with the spread over German 10-year notes rising by 3.5 percentage points.
In the U.S., credit markets were also weak early in day Thursday. U.S. corporate bonds also declined sharply, though in a more orderly fashion than the stock market.
Investment-grade bonds at one point during the day were suffering a deeper selloff than at the worst of the Lehman Brothers crisis, according to Tim Backshall, chief strategist at Credit Derivatives Research. High-yield bonds had their worst day since 2007.
But the selloff in credit has been building slowly for days, suggesting to some that the market turmoil may not be over. At the very least, there is a growing chance that a record rally in corporate debt that began at the height of the credit crisis in 2008 may be entering a new, uncertain phase.
Credit-market indicators that reflect jitters about short-term lending to banks have been creeping higher for several days. The London interbank offered rate, at which banks lend money to each other, rose on Thursday to 0.37%, its highest level since last August, a sign that short-term cash is becoming scarcer for banks. Market observers said banks in Europe were starting to have a hard time selling commercial paper and other assets in the market to meet funding needs, a chilling callback to the credit crisis in the U.S.
Libor and other fear indicators are nowhere near as high as at the height of that crisis, when Libor soared to more than 5%, but were wide enough to start to draw attention.
Investors fled to the safety of U.S. Treasury debt. The 10-year note's yield fell to 3.4%, the lowest level of the year.
—Dan Fitzpatrick Neil Shah, Donna Kardos Yesalavich, Kristina Peterson and Aaron Lucchetti contributed to this article.
Biggest Dow Drops Below are the biggest closing point drops in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Date Close Points/% 9/29/2008 10365.45 -777.68/-6.98% 10/15/2008 8577.91 -733.08/-7.87% 9/17/2001 8920.70 -684.81/-7.13% 12/1/2008 8149.09 -679.95/-7.70% 10/9/2008 8579.19 -678.91/-7.33 Source: WSJ Markets Data Group
Write to Tom Lauricella at [email protected] and Peter A. McKay at [email protected] | – Yesterday's big market gains vanished and then some today as investors worried about Europe's debt problems and the weak US recovery, reports MarketWatch. Dow: Down 520 points, or 4.6%, to 10,719 S&P 500: Down 52 points, or 4.4%, to 1,121 Nasdaq: Down 101 points, or 4%, to 2,381 "Markets are having an extremely difficult time here—volatility is rising and the speed and voracity of these declines is so rapid I don't think anyone can wrap their heads around this," a market strategist at Banyan Partners tells the Wall Street Journal. At one point, gold rose above $1,800 an ounce for the first time as people looked for safe havens, notes AP. |
Ruslan Olinchuk / Alamy Stock Photo
Our ancestors mated with another species of ancient hominins, the Denisovans, on at least two occasions. The discovery suggests that Denisovans were widely across Asia, and apparently co-existed happily with modern humans, to the point of having children with them in two different parts of the ancient world.
The Denisovans were unknown until 2010, when researchers described a fragment of a girl’s finger bone found in Denisova cave in Siberia. Soon afterwards, researchers sequenced its genome from the surviving DNA. The DNA did not belong to any known hominins, such as Neanderthals, so it had to be something new.
What’s more, around 5 per cent of the DNA of some Australasians – particularly people from Papua New Guinea – is Denisovan. Humans evidently mated with Denisovans 50,000 or more years ago.
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But this posed a puzzle: why were the present-day descendants of Denisovans so far from the Denisovans’ Siberian home? The simplest explanation was that Denisovans lived throughout much of Asia, including South East Asia, not just Siberia.
Sharon Browning of the University of Washington in Seattle and her colleagues have now found evidence of a second instance of human-Denisovan interbreeding – on the Asian mainland.
Hidden in the genes
Browning’s team used a new technique to trawl for segments of ancient DNA in the genomes of 5600 living humans from Europe, Asia, America and Oceania. The chunks of older DNA stand out because they are unusually rich in mutations, which would have built up for hundreds of thousands of years in the genomes of Denisovans, but would not have been present in the human lineage. So when humans and Denisovans mated, their children would inherit these mutation-rich regions of DNA.
After Browning had isolated the ancient DNA, she then used the reference genomes of Denisovans and Neanderthals to establish where it came from. She found that some East Asians carry Denisovan DNA, especially Han Chinese, Chinese Dai and Japanese people.
But this Denisovan DNA is distinct from that carried by Australasians. It is more closely related to the Denisovan sample. “Although the Papuans ended up with more Denisovan ancestry, it turns out to be less similar to the sequenced Denisovan,” says Browning.
The upshot is that Denisovans bred with modern humans in at least two places: in east Asia, and further south-east in Indonesia or Australasia. “Our research demonstrates that there were at least two distinct populations of Denisovans living in Asia, probably somewhat geographically distant,” says Browning.
Even more interbreeding
“The fact that two episodes of interbreeding occurred suggests that at least in some instances, Denisovans and modern humans were willing to live in proximity and interact,” says Browning.
As well as mating with Denisovans, there is strong evidence that humans interbred with Neanderthals, which were a sister species to the Denisovans.
“This new work is important because for the first time it unambiguously demonstrates a third interbreeding [of modern with ancient hominins],” says David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston. “Up to this point, we only had data for two.” There have been claims of a second, earlier instance of interbreeding with Neanderthals, but not everyone is convinced.
Tantalisingly, breeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans may not be the end of our ancestors’ promiscuity. A quarter of the chunks of ancient DNA that Browning found in living humans didn’t match either Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA. So we may have also had children with other, unidentified hominins.
“At this point, we have no way of knowing if these derive from an as-yet-unknown archaic group, or are simply false positives,” says Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Journal reference: Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.02.031 ||||| Browning developed a technique that compares the genomes of many modern people, and looks for stretches of DNA that are unusually varied, relative to their neighboring segments. These varied stretches are likely to have been inherited from ancient hominins like Neanderthals, Denisovans, or as-yet-undiscovered groups. Browning can then compare these segments to the genomes of those ancient hominins to work out exactly which group the DNA came from.
In the genomes of people from Japan and China, Browning found several segments that closely match the genome of the Denisovan woman whose pinky was found in the Altai Mountains. But to her surprise, she also found segments that were clearly Denisovan in origin, but were much weaker matches to the Altai female. “They’re close enough that we’re sure they’re Denisovan, but they’re not as close,” she says.
This suggests that modern humans inherited DNA from two separate groups of Denisovans. The way Browning sees it, the ancestors of today’s Melanesians encountered Denisovans as they expanded through South Asia and the Malay Peninsula. The two groups interbred, with the result that 5 percent of modern Melanesian DNA has a Denisovan origin.
At roughly the same time, the ancestors of today’s East Asians were taking a more northerly route through the continent, and met a different group of Denisovans, perhaps somewhere close to that Altai cave. Again, there was sex. Again, Denisovan DNA infiltrated the human genome.
But this contribution was much smaller, and today’s East Asians retain much less Denisovan ancestry than Melanesians do—just 0.2 percent of their genome. “Maybe it was a large group of East Asians meeting a small number of Denisovans,” Browning speculates. And complicating matters further, some Melanesians likely migrated north and mixed with East Asians, uniting the two waves of Denisovan ancestry in one lineage.
“Once I found two Denisovan waves, I thought we’d see something similar in the Neanderthals,” Browning says. To her surprise, she didn’t. People from Eurasia can trace around 2 percent of their DNA to Neanderthals, and it seems that this legacy comes from a single wave of interbreeding with one particular group—one that likely lived in the European part of their range.
That goes “somewhat against the grain of current knowledge,” says Emilia Huerta Sánchez, from the University of California at Merced. Some scientists have suggested that several groups of Neanderthals donated DNA to modern humans, which might explain why East Asians contain considerably more Neanderthal DNA than Europeans do. Browning and her colleagues argue otherwise, “and they have a considerable level of evidence to support their conclusions,” Huerta Sánchez says.
That seems counterintuitive, especially since we know that Neanderthals lived throughout Europe and Asia, whereas Denisovans have only been found in a single Siberian cave. But that picture might be deceptive. Scientists have sequenced the genomes of two Neanderthals—one from Vindija Cave, in Croatia, and another from the Altai region, in Siberia—and the differences between them are smaller than between the two Denisovan populations Browning identified in her work. “Maybe the Neanderthals were more nomadic and their populations were mixing a lot, while the Denisovans stayed in particular places and didn’t mix,” she says.
It’s also possible that Denisovans were more widespread than their limited bones suggest. “They may have overlapped in range with Asians and Papuans, as these populations had multiple encounters,” says Priya Moorjani, from University of California, Berkeley. “Since we only know about Denisovans from genetic material from one cave, any additional insights are exciting.”
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected]. | – Ancient humans weren't against knocking boots with other species: We know they had sex with Neanderthals. We also know they mated with the mysterious Denisovans, as some Australasians (those from Papua New Guinea in particular) have 5% Denisovan DNA. But a "breakthrough" study shows the interbreeding wasn't limited to those two instances. While looking for ancient DNA in the genomes of 5,600 living humans, a team at the University of Washington in Seattle came across evidence of a third interbreeding event, reports New Scientist. A smaller contribution of Denisovan DNA in Han Chinese, Chinese Dai, and Japanese people—about 0.2% of their genome—suggests humans mixed with a distinct population of Denisovans in not one but two locations: Indonesia or Australasia and East Asia. Though the only four Denisovan fossils that have been found come from the same cave in Siberia, the research published in the journal Cell shows Denisovans were spread across Asia and "suggests that at least in some instances, Denisovans and modern humans were willing to live in proximity and interact," lead author Sharon Browning says. Her research also backs the theory that there was a single "wave" of interbreeding between humans and one population of Neanderthals, reports the Atlantic. But Browning couldn't link other ancient DNA found in living humans to Neanderthals or Denisovans, suggesting humans may have mated with hominins we haven't even discovered yet. Harvard geneticist David Reich, who was not involved in the research, says the finding of "a definite third interbreeding event" makes this "a breakthrough paper," per the Washington Post. (Here's how a bit of cave dirt changed archaeology.) |
President Donald Trump tweeted his support of Karen Handel, the Republican candidate in Georgia's special election, on election day morning. | Getty Trump slams Dem Ossoff as Georgia voters head to the polls
President Donald Trump began his last minute pitch to Georgia voters just before 6 a.m. Tuesday, warning them that Democrat Jon Ossoff wants to raise taxes and is “weak on crime and security” while his GOP opponent, Karen Handel, is just the opposite.
“Democrat Jon Ossoff, who wants to raise your taxes to the highest level and is weak on crime and security, doesn't even live in district,” Trump wrote on Twitter early Tuesday morning, the start of a two-post flurry. “KAREN HANDEL FOR CONGRESS. She will fight for lower taxes, great healthcare strong security-a hard worker who will never give up! VOTE TODAY.”
Story Continued Below
Voters in Georgia’s sixth Congressional district will choose Tuesday between Ossoff and Handel, the two candidates vying for the suburban Atlanta seat left vacant by Tom Price, Trump’s secretary of health and human services. Tuesday’s election is a runoff that follows one last April in which Ossoff finished well ahead of a multi-candidate GOP field but did not hit the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to win the seat outright without a runoff.
Price won the seat last November by more than 23 percentage points, but Democrats, eager to win a seat last held by a member of the president’s cabinet, have poured money into the race, making it the most expensive House election on record.
Polls show the race essentially even heading into Election Day, with Handel holding a lead of less than a quarter of a point according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.
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Ossoff, running for office for the first time at 30-years-old, has faced criticism from Trump and others that he does not live in the sixth district, a situation the Democrat has explained by saying that he is currently living with his girlfriend while she completes medical school at Emory University just outside the district’s borders.
He has said he intends to move back into the district once his girlfriend’s studies are complete, an explanation that has not insulated him from attacks from the president, who has noted Ossoff’s residency issue more than once in posts to Twitter.
Ossoff: The congressional baseball shooting has 'no place' in an attack ad poster="https://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201706/642/1155968404_5477665602001_5477653751001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true
“Karen Handel's opponent in #GA06 can't even vote in the district he wants to represent because he doesn't even live there!” Trump wrote on Twitter Monday evening. “He wants to raise taxes and kill healthcare. On Tuesday, #VoteKarenHandel.”
Ossoff said on Tuesday morning that he thinks the competency and integrity concerns of the Trump administration have increased and that this a matter of public interest.
“It speaks to a greater need of accountability on effective congressional oversight,” Ossoff said. “I won’t hesitate to stand up to him if he threatens our interests or values.”
Diamond Naga Siu contributed to this report. ||||| ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Georgia’s special election will be a nail-biter all the way to the finish line Tuesday, as President Trump looms large over an election that has huge stakes for both Democrats and Republicans ahead of the 2018 midterms.
Democrats have zeroed in on the suburban Atlanta district as their best chance this year to flip a House seat and are looking to Jon Ossoff to be the face of the anti-Trump resistance. But if
Ossoff comes up short, his loss will deal a major blow to their newfound momentum and political activism.
The stakes are just as high for the GOP. If it loses the seat left open by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Trump will likely shoulder the blame and Republicans could start defecting from his agenda.
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On the other hand, a victory for Republican Karen Handel will signify that opposition to Trump might not win Democrats the House in 2018.
In the final days of the race, Ossoff and Handel have sought to steer clear of national politics, with each candidate barely uttering Trump’s name. Both have also downplayed the national implications of the race, even though it has been a magnet for attention and tens of millions of dollars. The total spending in the race is estimated to be around $60 million.
Ossoff, who launched his campaign months ago by urging voters to “Make Trump Furious,” has tempered his rhetoric when it comes to the president. While he needed to win Democrats in the jungle primary, he now needs to appeal to more moderate voters in a district that has been a deep shade of red for decades.
But when hyping up his supporters over the weekend as they launched more canvasses, Ossoff still made indirect references to Trump, saying that “fear and hate” won’t be tolerated in the state.
“Let’s send a message across this country that fear and hate and division are not welcome in Georgia,” Ossoff said at his Sandy Springs office on Saturday, “that Georgians stand up instead for unity and for progress.”
When asked about Trump directly, Ossoff didn’t shy away from saying that he’ll stand up to the president where there are major differences, but he also said he’d work with him on issues where they can find common ground.
“I’ve consistently said I’ll stand up to President Trump if he embarrasses us or threatens our interests and that I’m willing to work with him on issues of mutual interest,” Ossoff told reporters on Sunday, adding that there has been an increase in concerns lately over the administration’s “integrity and competence.”
Ossoff’s ground game has grown into a massive operation of more than 12,000 volunteers, helped along by canvassing and phone banking from various national and local groups.
The campaign’s emphasis on the ground game illustrates how important turnout will be for Ossoff in a GOP-leaning district. Trump only carried the district by less than 2 points, but Price still handily won reelection.
Ossoff will need to turn out his base — particularly voters in northern DeKalb County and black voters — and make some inroads with independents and even GOP voters still lukewarm on Trump.
Handel has also had to strike a difficult balance when it comes to the president. She didn’t mention him once at any of her events or rallies in the final days of the race, and notably neglected to bring him up while campaigning with Price and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, a former Georgia governor.
But that hasn’t stopped Trump from weighing in. He tweeted his support for Handel Monday morning and followed up later in the day with another tweet attacking Ossoff for living outside the district. Trump also recorded a robocall for Handel earlier this month.
When told that Trump tweeted about her, Handel only briefly remarked, with some laughter: “I heard that, I heard, yes.”
Handel’s decision to keep her distance from Trump risks alienating Trump’s supporters, a part of the GOP base that she still needs. But GOP strategists believe she has still shown enough support for Republicans’ legislative agenda in Washington.
“Karen has to sort of walk a fine line, but I don’t think she’s shied away from talking about those core Republican issues that Republican leaders in Washington have focused on,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a lobbyist and Georgia state finance chairman for the Republican National Committee. Tanenblatt and Handel previously worked together for Perdue.
Handel’s campaign has looked to keep pace with Ossoff’s. The Georgia Republican said they knocked on 6,000 doors on Saturday, while national groups and a super PAC tied to House GOP leadership have funneled GOP money into the race.
In a nod to the closeness of the race, Handel and Ossoff got some last-minute help Monday from other politicians.
While Handel was meeting potential voters in Alpharetta, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) swung by her event. Handel’s primary rival Bob Gray also stopped by, telling The Hill he’s been rallying his Trump loyalist base for Handel.
Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) also stopped by Ossoff’s two canvassing events on Monday. Kander gained some national attention after running a close race for Senate in Missouri last year.
While Ossoff and Handel have publicly balked at playing up the race’s national significance, Kander reminded supporters that all eyes in politics would be on Georgia when polls close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night.
“You know the whole country’s watching,” he said. | – The House race that has become much more than a House race will be decided Tuesday in Georgia, and President Trump shot off some early tweets to support the GOP candidate. Republican Karen Handel, he wrote, "will fight for lower taxes, great healthcare," and "strong security," while opponent Jon Ossoff "wants to raise your taxes to the highest level and is weak on crime and security, doesn't even live in district," he tweeted. On the last point, the 30-year-old has explained that he's currently living with his med-student girlfriend but will move back into the district in suburban Atlanta when she's done at Emory University, reports Politico. With polls showing a statistical dead heat, political analysts have essentially morphed the race into a referendum on Trump. That explains why advocates on both sides have pumped more than $50 million into the contest, making it the most expensive House race in history. The seat has long been held by Republicans, with Tom Price vacating it upon Trump's win to become his Health and Human Services secretary. Both candidates have sought to downplay the national implications, notes the Hill, but it's widely seen as a barometer for the president's agenda and for control of the House in 2018. |
A corny musician joke about drummers came to life for Belle & Sebastian’s Richard Colburn this week, when the group’s bus driver looked around, said, “yup, everyone’s here,” and pulled out of the parking lot of a Walmart in Dickinson, North Dakota, leaving Colburn behind. “I was coming out of the Walmart, and he was coming into the Walmart, and he was waving very happily, in a good mood,” frontman Stuart Murdoch tells The Current. “And that was the last time that we saw him.”
It seems that it took a while for Murdoch and company to notice Colburn was gone. Murdoch first tweeted about his disappearance from Maple Grove, Minnesota, which according to Google Maps is a seven-hour drive from Dickinson:
Shit, we left Richard in North Dakota. Anyone want to be a hero and get him to St Paul, Minnesota somehow. The gig hangs in the balance..😳 — stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) August 15, 2017
Since Colburn went into the Walmart without his phone and it was late at night, he apparently sat there for four hours waiting for someone to come get him before saying ”fuck it” and checking into a nearby hotel. Eventually, someone responded to Murdoch’s SOS and gave Colburn a ride to the Bismarck airport, where he caught a flight to Minneapolis. He even made it on time to the gig at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul that night:
It was a great relief to hear in between songs for @thecurrent that Richard was on a plane heading this way. The show will go on! pic.twitter.com/D3Lfyh8fpD — belle & sebastian (@bellesglasgow) August 15, 2017
While this might seem like an act of twee passive aggression—The Current host Mary Lucia even jokes about it in her interview with Murdoch, saying, “that’s one way to get rid of a drummer”—Murdoch says it was simply a whimsical accident. And to be fair, Belle & Sebastian has more members than your average band, “so it’s maybe not surprising that something like this happened,” as Murdoch puts it. Anyway, steps have been taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again:
A new sign appeared on our bus. Should be ok now..😉 pic.twitter.com/mrGvBgq5ca — stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) August 16, 2017
Belle & Sebastian’s new single, “Someone Is Off The Bus, Please Heed My Sign,” is presumably forthcoming.
[via Stereogum]
Submit your Newswire tips here. ||||| Talking to The Current's Mary Lucia, Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch explains how the band's drummer, Richard Colburn, got left behind in North Dakota as the band were making their way to a gig in St. Paul, Minn.
Interview Transcript
MARY LUCIA: 89.3 The Current, I am happy to be sitting here, chatting with Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian, who's had quite a morning.
STUART MURDOCH: It's been a morning. It feels like a whole day that we've had already.
MARY: Just give us the little synopsis version of what went down.
STUART: Well, when I woke up a few hours ago, we realized we left our drummer in North Dakota.
MARY: Yeah, that happens.
STUART: What happens, or what?
MARY: That's just one way to get rid of a drummer, I'm thinking.
STUART: I'm kind of partially to blame because we were in a Walmart, we were just leaving town, Dickinson, North Dakota — not the other side of North Dakota! And we stopped for water, and I was coming out of the Walmart, and he [drummer Richard Colburn] was coming into the Walmart, and he was waving very happily, in a good mood. And that was the last time that we saw him.
MARY: And naturally, it should be said that when one runs in to use a restroom or whatever, you're not necessarily thinking, "Do I have my passport with me? And my phone? A urine sample and all that?" So basically, you did leave him with nothing.
STUART: He had a credit card, but he still sat in Walmart for four hours, but the thing is, he was probably thinking that we were — somebody was going to notice, but the trouble is everybody went to bed. I mean, there used to be a system. There used to be a system, but because we all have mobile phones these days, everybody's got a little bit blasé about it. It used to be that it was the pass on the passenger seat — you used to leave a pass for the last person, and that's how the driver knew. So Richard didn't have his phone with him, and we were all talking about all the different things he could've done, but he checked into a hotel and went to sleep!
MARY: What's the funniest observation someone has made about this today?
STUART: Everything up to this point didn't seem too funny. All I knew, personally my experience was I went into kind of "daddy" mode or something like that, and I just remember there was an episode of The West Wing where the President's daughter went missing, and I thought, "What did they do then?" And the word was, "Get the word out there!" With a missing person, it's better to get the word out there, you know, so that something will happen, because we didn't know how we were going to get him from there, from that kind of desolate spot, to St. Paul, so we tweeted, and lots of kind people tweeted me back, saying, "I'm in Fargo, maybe I could get there," "I'm in Bismarck, you know, maybe we could work something out." I even had a friend who was driving down from Winnipeg on the way to the show here. So currently we have him in a car driving to Bismarck, and the only question is, "Will they let him on the plane?"
MARY: With no ID.
STUART: And in his pyjamas.
MARY: Well, PJs … he won't seem much of a threat, I think, when you're in your jammies. You know?
STUART: That's true.
MARY: I think the answer lies in microchipping the band in the future, like you do your dog.
STUART: We were just talking about that! Our manager two managers ago, our first manager, Neil Robertson, I swear to god, he wanted to have us chipped in the neck. And this was — I'm talking 15 years ago. Because with a band our size, I mean, there used to be more of us. With the string players, it was like 12, 13 of us. And it's like herding cats. So it's maybe not surprising that something like this happened.
MARY: Yeah, if you see a wandering musician in Fargo, North Dakota, just bring him into the nearest vet, and they can just see if he's chipped.
STUART: Oh, god, now you say "Fargo" — I hope he doesn't end up upside-down in a wood chipper.
MARY: He's fleeing the interview!
Epilogue
Thanks for your help folks. We have Richard on a plane now, so everything is ok. He's in his pyjamas, sitting with a mimosa ð𸠗 stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) August 15, 2017
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Belle & Sebastian perform an acoustic set in The Current studio Finding themselves temporarily missing drummer Richard Colburn, Belle & Sebastian creatively pivot and perform an acoustic set in The Current's studio, playing a selection of songs from three different albums.
Belle & Sebastian - official site | – Belle & Sebastian managed to leave its drummer in a North Dakota Walmart this week, and the rest of the band apparently didn't notice until about seven hours later. "S---, we left Richard in North Dakota. Anyone want to be a hero and get him to St Paul, Minnesota somehow. The gig hangs in the balance," reads a tweet from the band's frontman, Stuart Murdoch, Tuesday. It seems that when the band's tour bus stopped at the Walmart, drummer Richard Colburn went into the store without his phone. The driver apparently thought everyone was back on board and left. Murdoch's tweet was sent from Maple Grove, Minn., which the AV Club notes is a seven-hour drive from the Dickinson, ND, Walmart. Murdoch described the situation to the Current radio show Tuesday, explaining that when everyone woke up that morning, they realized Colburn was missing. Colburn waited in the Walmart for four hours, assuming someone would realize he was gone and the bus would come back for him, "but the trouble is everybody went to bed" after leaving the Walmart, Murdoch says. The drummer eventually checked into a hotel and someone who saw the band's social media plea gave him a ride to the Bismarck airport; he was able to fly from there to Minneapolis and make it to the show in St. Paul. "A new sign appeared on our bus. Should be ok now," Murdoch tweeted Wednesday along with a photo of a sign meant for the bus driver's seat reading, "SOMEONE IS OFF THE BUS." |
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani is shown on video monitors as he addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, September 24, 2013.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani talks to a United Nations official as he departs after concluding his address to the 68th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 24, 2013.
UNITED NATIONS Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, expressed hope on Tuesday that U.S. President Barack Obama would not be swayed by "warmongering pressure groups" at home in dealing with the Iranian nuclear dispute and called for a consistent voice from Washington on the issue.
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly hours after Obama addressed the annual gathering of world leaders, Rouhani said he was prepared to engage in "time-bound and results-oriented" nuclear talks and did not seek to increase tensions with the United States.
"I listened carefully to the statement made by President Obama today at the General Assembly," he said. "Commensurate with the political will of the leadership in the United States and hoping that they will refrain from following the short-sighted interest of warmongering pressure groups, we can arrive at a framework to manage our differences."
"To this end, equal footing, mutual respect and the recognized principles of international law should govern the interactions," he said. "Of course, we expect to hear a consistent voice from Washington."
A potential encounter at the United Nations between Obama and Rouhani failed to take place on Tuesday as the Iranians indicated it was too complicated, senior Obama administration officials said.
U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo was seated at the U.S. table while Rouhani spoke. Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was present for Obama's speech.
While his speech lacked the strident anti-Western rhetoric of predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's U.N. speeches, Rouhani offered no concessions. He repeated Tehran's position that Iran is not interested in atomic weapons.
"Nuclear weapon and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran's security and defense doctrine, and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions," he said in his first U.N. speech since taking office in August.
While he avoided any suggestion that Israel had no right to exist, he sharply criticized the treatment of the Palestinians - albeit without naming Israel directly.
"Palestine is under occupation," he said. "The basic rights of the Palestinians are tragically violated, and they are deprived of the right of return and access to their homes, birthplace and homeland."
He also blasted the international sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, which Western powers and their allies fear is aimed at developing the capability to produce atomic weapons.
"Contrary to the claims of those who pursue and impose them, it is not the states and the political elite that are targeted, but rather, it is the common people who are victimized by these sanctions," Rouhani told the 193-nation assembly.
"Let us not forget millions of Iraqis who, as a result of sanctions covered in international legal jargon, suffered and lost their lives, and many more who continue to suffer all through their lives," he said.
Iran is under U.S., European Union, U.N. and other sanctions due to its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Rouhani warned that attempts to force Iran to abandon nuclear technology will fail because of the country's high level of technical know-how and scientific expertise.
"Nuclear knowledge in Iran has been domesticated now and the nuclear technology, inclusive of enrichment, has already reached industrial scale," he said.
"It is, therefore, an illusion, and extremely unrealistic, to presume that the peaceful nature of the nuclear program of Iran could be ensured through impeding the program via illegitimate pressures."
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Louis Charbonneau, Yeganeh Torbati, Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jim Loney) ||||| Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called US sanctions against Iran violent, but also added Iran is open to talks that would resolve the nuclear dispute. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
NEW YORK — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that his country poses "absolutely no threat to the world," and sanctions that have crippled its economy are "violent — pure and simple."
In his first address to the world body, hours after President Barack Obama spoke, Rouhani also said he is prepared to engage in "time-bound" talks to resolve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.
Rouhani’s closely watched visit to the United Nations followed a series of diplomatic overtures the centrist-leaning cleric has made to the West since he was elected to replace hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and he stressed his moderate credentials.
He also blasted "brutal oppression of the Palestinian people," criticized the use of drones, and said the biggest threat in the Middle East is chemical weapons falling into the hands of "extremist terrorist groups" — a nod to the crisis in Syria, a close ally.
While the speech was far more toned-down than the invective-filled addresses Ahmadinejad has given, Rouhani had strong words for the "intrinsically inhumane" sanctions imposed because of his country's nuclear activities.
"It is the common people who are victimized by these sanctions," he said.
He insisted that Iran's atomic energy program is "exclusively peaceful" and that he is ready to engage "immediately in time-bound and results-oriented" talks with the West but expects to be treated with "mutual respect" by the U.S.
President Barack Obama speaks at the U.N. Tuesday about Iran's nuclear program and recent statements made by President Hassan Rouhani.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday suggested Iran's diplomatic overtures to the West on its nuclear program were a ploy in order to continue pursuing atomic weapons.
"Iran thinks that soothing words and token actions will enable it to continue on its path to the bomb," Netanyahu said after Rouhani's speech, adding that Israel would welcome a diplomatic solution that dismantled Iran's capacity to develop nuclear weapons.
The Anti-Defamation League, a group that fights anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination, issued a statement calling Rouhani’s debut UN speech “more of the same platitude and denials” and said he was playing the “victim’s card” by claiming Iran was being persecuted by the international community
While Obama had encouraging words for his Iranian counterpart during his address, it appears a much buzzed-about meeting between the two leaders won't happen during the General Assembly.
Two senior administration officials told White House reporters that a meeting — even a handshake, even on the sidelines — proved “too complicated” for Rouhani back home.
As a result, Secretary of State John Kerry’s meeting with his own Iranian counterpart, scheduled for Thursday, will be the highest-level encounter between the two countries at the U.N.
Foreign affairs experts had speculated that Obama and Rouhani might shake hands at a luncheon for world leaders on Tuesday, where the menu included tuna tartar and veal osso bucco — or that they might at least eat in the same room. An Obama-Rouhani handshake would have been a historic moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, which have been frosty at best for three decades.
President Obama at a luncheon for heads of states at the 68th session of the General Assembly.
But a U.N. handler told White House reporters that Iran would not be represented at the luncheon. She said that Iran did not RSVP, and added that many delegations skip the lunch.
PhotoBlog: Small gestures with big meanings: Historic presidential handshakes
Before lunch, Obama told the General Assembly that that the United States and Iran could start down a “long road towards a different relationship — one based on mutual interest and respect.”
Obama stressed that the U.S. is determined not to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. But he suggested that two recent statements, including Rouhani’s saying that his country will never develop a nuclear weapon, represent crucial progress.
“We should be able to achieve a resolution that respects the rights of the Iranian people, while giving the world confidence that the Iranian program is peaceful,” he said.
He said that he was directing Kerry, working closely with European allies, Russia and China, to pursue an agreement with the government of Iran.
“The roadblocks may prove to be too great, but I firmly believe the diplomatic path must be tested,” Obama said.
President Barack Obama gives a toast to the U.N. secretary general, while delivering remarks to world leaders at Tuesday's U.N. luncheon in New York City.
He spoke of deep mistrust between the United States and Iran since the revolution there: Iranians have complained of U.S. interference, while Americans see a country that has taken Americans hostage, killed American troops and threatened Israel.
“I don’t believe this difficult history can be overcome overnight — the suspicion runs too deep,” he said. “But I do believe that if we can resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear program, that can serve as a major step down a long road towards a different relationship — one based on mutual interests and mutual respect.”
Before Rouhani spoke, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the world "should not be fooled" by signs of moderation from Tehran.
President Barack Obama tell the U.N. Tuesday that anyone who suggests that Bashar al-Assad did not carry out a chemical weapons attack in August is insulting the "legitimacy of this institution."
Netanyahu voiced deep skepticism about Iran's new outreach to the West, saying it is merely a ploy to ease international sanctions while secretly building a nuclear weapon.
“Iran thinks soothing words and token actions will enable it to continue on its path to the bomb,” he said.
Netanyahu said that he welcomed Obama’s efforts to engage Rouhani in dialogue. But he said that Iran’s conciliatory words must be matched by actions.
On the crisis in Syria, Obama called on the U.N. to pass a strong resolution to verify that Syrian leader Bashar Assad lives up to his commitment to get rid of his chemical weapons.
“If we cannot agree even on this, then it will show that the United Nations is incapable of enforcing the most basic of international laws,” he said. “On the other hand, if we succeed, it will send a powerful message that the use of chemical weapons has no place in the 21st century, and that this body means what it says.”
The president said that it was an “insult to human reason and the legitimacy of this institution” to suggest that anyone other than the forces of Assad used chemical weapons in an Aug. 21 attack in the Syrian civil war.
President Barack Obama addresses the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians Tuesday at the U.N.
The United States says it has overwhelming evidence that loyalist forces sent sarin-gas rockets into a rebel neighborhood and killed 1,400 people, including civilians and more than 400 children.
Alluding to Americans’ disinclination to get involved in another Middle East conflict, Obama said that it would be a danger for the United States to “disengage, creating a vacuum of leadership that no other nation is ready to fill.”
“I believe that would be a mistake,” Obama said. “I believe America must remain engaged for our own security. I believe the world is better for it. Some may disagree, but I believe that America is exceptional — in part because we have shown a willingness, through the sacrifice of blood and treasure, to stand up not only for our own narrow self-interest, but for the interests of all.”
The mention of American exceptionalism seemed a reference to an Op-Ed published last week in The New York Times by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He wrote that it was “extremely dangerous” to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional.
Obama had threatened a military strike to enforce the nearly worldwide ban on chemical weapons. The attack was averted when the United States and Russia struck a deal under which Syria must hand over and ultimately destroy its chemicals by next year.
In his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Obama said that he made the threat because “it is in the security interest of the United States and the world to meaningfully enforce a prohibition whose origins are older than the U.N. itself.”
He spoke of the memories of soldiers suffocated in the trenches of World War I, of Jews slaughered in Nazi gas chambers and — pointedly — of the tens of thousands of Iranians poisoned to death in the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s.
Outlining American policy in the Middle East, Obama said Tuesday that the United States was committed to using “all elements of our power, including military force, to secure our core interests in the region.”
He said that the United States would confront aggression against allies, and ensure the flow of energy to the world. He also vowed to dismantle terror networks that threaten Americans, and said that the U.S. would not tolerate weapons of mass destruction.
Reuters contributed to this report.
This story was originally published on ||||| A much-anticipated meeting between the US president Barack Obama and the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani did not happen on Tuesday, according to White House officials.
There had been speculation that the pair would meet on the fringes of the United Nations general assembly in New York, in what would have been the first such encounter since the Islamic revolution toppled the shah of Iran in 1979.
But Obama administration officials said that while the US offered a meeting, the Iranian delegation turned it down, saying it was "too complicated".
Officials from the two countries have been discussing the logistics of an "encounter" in the UN complex in mid-town Manhattan for several days, a UN official confirmed to the press pool travelling with Obama. In the end though, the official said, it was "too complicated for Iranians to do at this point".
Theres was no immediate statement from the Iranian delegation. But Press TV, Tehran's English-language television station, gave alcohol as the reason that Rouhani had missed one possible venue for a handshake or a few shared words, the lunch traditionally hosted by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon on the opening day of the general assembly. When guests gathered in the delegates lounge of the UN building, they were seated at tables upon which white and red wine were served – a facility that proved too much for the Muslim theologian Rouhani.
The White House said that a meeting would go ahead on Thursday between the US secretary of state, John Kerry, his Iranian counterpart and other foreign ministers from the other permanent security council members, plus Germany. That meeting is intended to address reviving negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday warned that the world "should not be fooled" by signs of moderation by Rouhani and must keep up the pressure on Tehran. "Iran thinks soothing words and token actions will enable it to continue on its path to the bomb," Netanyahu said.
In his UN speech, Obama said he had assigned Kerry to oversee negotiations with Tehran. In the past those talks had been led by a succession of State Department diplomats, and critics had complained there was no one in the administration who was in charge of US-Iran policy.
He also offered Rouhani an important symbolic gesture, making the first official US acknowledgement of the CIA's well-documented role in the ousting of Iran's democratically-elected government in 1953. "This mistrust has deep roots. Iranians have long complained of a history of US interference in their affairs, and America's role in overthrowing an Iranian government during the cold war," Obama said.
The reference to the CIA's part in the ousting of Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran's democratically elected leader, marked a first official admission of that role, and represented an important gesture to Rouhani. It will be seen in Iran as a diplomatic victory and belated acknowledgement of a long-festering Iranian sense of injustice. The coup, support by both the US and the UK, paved the way for the dictatorship of the shah, and then the 1979 Islamic revolution against it.
"I don't believe this difficult history can be overcome overnight. The suspicions run too deep. But I do believe if we can resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear programme that can be a major step," Obama said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during an interview with state television at the presidency in Tehran, Iran. Photograph: Rouzbeh Jadidoleslam/AP
The abortive attempt to arrange a meeting between Obama and Rouhani was an echo of a similar incident in 2000 when it was expected that the two leaders at the time, Bill Clinton and Mohammad Khatami, would break the ice in the frozen relationship with the same kind of "chance encounter", but Khatami pulled out at the last moment.
The Iranian skittishness on both occasions reflected the delicate stand-off between hawks and doves in Tehran. Moderate leaders like Rouhani and Khatami have to choose their battles carefully and not give hostages to fortunes. Being pictured with an American president without being able to deliver real diplomatic or economic gains for Iran could be cast as weakness or even betrayal if the political winds in Iran change once again.
"The Iranians have an internal dynamic that they have to manage and the relationship with the United States is clearly quite different than the relationship that Iran has with other Western nations," a senior administration official told reporters.
The last few encounters between US and Iranian officials have been brief affairs. The last one was in the Hague at a conference on Afghanistan where the late American special envoy Richard Holbrooke had a "cordial" chat with an Iranian deputy foreign minister in 2009.
The choreography of diplomatic handshakes at UN gatherings in New York has a long history; getting it wrong can have painful consequences. In 2004 the then British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, got into hot water after he shook the hands of the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, at a UN reception in New York; Straw later claimed he had made the gesture by mistake in the dark. | – An Iranian president addressed the UN General Assembly today, and for a change there was no talk of 9/11 conspiracies, Holocaust hoaxes, or the US delegation walking out. Instead, Hasan Rouhani—the more moderate successor of Mahmoud Ahmandinejad—said his nation wants to ease tensions with the US and take part in "timebound and result-oriented" talks on its nuclear program, reports the Wall Street Journal. But Rouhani insisted again that Tehran had only peaceful aims for its nukes, demanded that it be allowed to enrich uranium, and called the current sanctions against the country "violent—pure and simple," reports NBC News. "The negative impact is not nearly limited to the intended victims of sanctions," he said, complaining that innocent citizens were suffering. Rouhani added that his nation presents "absolutely no threat to the world" and that he hoped President Obama would not be influenced by "war-mongering pressure groups" in the US, reports Reuters. Earlier, Obama used his speech to press for renewed talks between the two nations. Despite signs of a thaw, however, he and Rouhani didn't arrange to shake hands. |
Matthew McConaughey, Camila Alves Welcome Baby Girl!
And baby makes five!
Matthew McConaughey and wife Camila Alves have something extra to be thankful for as they head into the new year: Their new baby daughter, who was born the morning of Dec. 28 in Austin, Tex., a source tells Us Weekly. (TMZ was the first to break the news.)
The couple's new arrival joins older siblings Levi, 4, and Vida, 3.
PHOTOS: Camila's chic maternity style
Confirming Alves' third pregnancy via Twitter on July 4, McConaughey's announcement came two weeks after the couple tied the knot in an outdoor Austin, Texas ceremony. "Happy birthday America, more good news," the Magic Mike actor tweeted last summer. "Camila and I are expecting our 3rd child, God bless, just keep liven."
PHOTOS: Matthew's hottest shirtless moments
As they had done with their older children, McConaughey, 43, and his wife decided not to find out the gender of baby No. 3 ahead of time. "It's a wonderful surprise," the proud new papa has said.
While her pregnancy progressed, the Brazilian model mom-to-be, 30, proved that she wasn't afraid to stay sexy while expecting, and dressed her bump in a variety of form-fitting fashions. "Do not be afraid to be sexy while you're pregnant, she told Us when offering advice to other fashionable pregnant women. "I'm learning that on my third pregnancy. I'm like, 'oh wow, you don't have to wear just flowing things.'"
PHOTOS: Supermodel moms
Together since 2006 after meeting in a Los Angeles bar, the actor and the Brazilian-born model got engaged on Christmas Day in 2011, and said their "I do's" on June 10. Setting up a makeshift campground on their Austin, Texas property, the pair invited their children to take part in the ceremony: Levi was the ring bearer and Vida the flower girl. ||||| Matthew & Camila McConaughey Expecting Third Child
Andreas Rentz/Getty
Baby makes five!
A month after marrying, Matthew and Camila McConaughey are set to expand their family once again, the couple announced via Twitter Wednesday.
“Happy birthday America, more good news, Camila and I are expecting our 3rd child,” the actor, 42, Tweeted. “God bless, just keep livin.”
His wife, 29, Tweeted the same message just 20 minutes before. The couple, who wed June 9 at their home in Texas, are already parents to daughter Vida, 2½, and son Levi, who turns 4 this week.
Asked on their wedding weekend about their dreams for the future, the couple told PEOPLE: “More of the same — and more family!”
Looks like they got their wish.
– Sarah Michaud with reporting by Elizabeth Leonard | – Time to raise a glass to Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy: They're expecting their first baby, Danes' rep confirms to People. Just last fall, Danes said the couple had "no plans yet" to procreate, but admitted, "that'd be fun." In other baby news, you can add "apparently very fertile" to "frequently shirtless" when it comes to phrases that describe Matthew McConaughey: He and new wife Camila Alves are expecting their third child. They already have daughter Vida, 2½, and son Levi, turning 4 this week. |
(CNN) From half a world away, Maritha Strydom was following her daughter's progress on Mount Everest last week through a series of satellite "pings" from the climber's phone.
Then the pings stopped. And soon after Strydom got the news every parent dreads -- not through a phone call, she says, but by reading a news article online.
Her daughter, Maria Strydom, had died of altitude sickness in the arms of her husband, Robert Gropel, Saturday as the couple attempted to climb the world's tallest peak to prove that vegans can do anything. She was one of four climbers who died on Everest in a grim span of four days.
"I was worried when the pings stopped, and we started calling but no one could give us any answers," Strydom told CNN in an interview from Brisbane, Australia. "So my other daughter ... Googled and found in the Himalayan Times that my daughter had passed away."
Strydom still wants answers.
She believes her daughter, known by friends and family as Marisa, was in the "death zone" for too long.
The death zone refers to altitudes higher than 8,000 meters (about 26,200 feet), where the risk of dying significantly climbs. There is little oxygen here, so altitude sickness is common and can be deadly. Temperatures tumble, winds intensify and frostbite can hit any exposed part of the body. The ground is icy, so falls are not uncommon.
"No one is supposed to stay in the death zone longer than 16 to 20 hours. If you stay there longer you will be dead," Strydom told CNN.
South African-born Maria Strydom, 34, worked as a finance professor with the Monash Business School in Melbourne, Australia. She had told the school in an interview that she and Gropel had decided to climb the highest peak on each of the seven continents -- the so-called "seven summits" -- to prove that vegans are strong.
The couple reached Everest's South Summit on Friday but decided to turn around and descend when Strydom began feeling poorly, according to an online post by exhibition leader Arnold Coster . Several Sherpas and her husband struggled to carry her down the mountain, but she collapsed the next morning, Coster said. Gropel was evacuated to Kathmandu the next day by helicopter.
"She felt weak and decided to turn around ... What Rob knows is that she felt ill, she got medication, she looked a bit better, and when he tried to get her down to camp 3, she suddenly collapsed," Strydom said.
"There's a massive gap in between the last ping where she turned around and where the story continues, and no one can tell me what happened in between yet, and I don't think I'll find out before Rob is better and, you know, he can tell us what happened," Strydom said, adding that Gropel was still suffering from altitude sickness.
"I am very, very concerned. I'm concerned about a lot of things," she added. "In their itinerary it was suggested they would sleep over at camp 3 for their acclimatization. They didn't."
Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Photos: Exploring Mount Everest The journey to the summit of Mount Everest is a challenge an increasing number have taken on since the summit was first reached in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Until the late 1970s, only a handful of climbers per year reached the summit. By 2012 that number rose to more than 500. Hide Caption 1 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Explorers are seen in 1922 at Camp II on the East Rongbuk Glacier. That same year, seven Sherpas were killed when they were caught in an avalanche during an expedition led by George Mallory. Hide Caption 2 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest George Mallory and Edward Felix Norton reach 27,000 feet on the northeast ridge of Everest in 1922. They failed to reach the summit. Hide Caption 3 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Mallory returns to Everest In June 1924. He's seen here with his climbing partner Andrew Irvine at base camp. This is the last photo of the the two before they disappeared on the mountain. Mallory's body was found 75 years later, showing signs of a fatal fall. Hide Caption 4 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Mountaineers are seen preparing to leave their camp during one of Eric Shipton's early expeditions on Everest in the 1930s. While Shipton never made it to the summit, his exploration of the mountain paved the way for others. Hide Caption 5 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Shipton leads an expedition exploring the Khumbu Glacier icefall in November 1951. Hide Caption 6 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Shipton is also known for discovering and photographing footprints of an unknown animal or person, like this one taken in 1951. Many attributed these to the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. Hide Caption 7 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Edmund Hillary sits at base camp in May 1953 before heading out on what would become the first successful ascent to the top of the world. Hide Caption 8 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Hillary and Nepalese-Indian mountaineer Tenzing Norgay climb beyond a crevasse on Mount Everest in 1953. Upon meeting George Lowe, who had climbed up to meet the descending duo, Hillary reportedly exclaimed, "Well George, we knocked the bastard off!" Hide Caption 9 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Members of a U.S. expedition team and Sherpas are shown with their climbing gear on Everest. The team, led by Jim Whittaker, reached the top on May 1, 1963, becoming the first Americans to do so. Hide Caption 10 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Whittaker's team members climb Everest's West Ridge in 1963. Hide Caption 11 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest On April 5, 1970, six Sherpas died in an avalanche at the Khumbu Icefall. The icefall, at the head of the Khumbu Glacier, seen here in 2003, is one of the more treacherous areas of the ascent. Hide Caption 12 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest British Army soldiers and mountaineers John "Brummie" Stokes and Michael "Bronco" Lane above the icefall at the entrance to the West Col (or western pass) of Mount Everest during their successful ascent of the mountain. The joint British-Nepalese army expedition reached the summit on May 16, 1976. Hide Caption 13 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest In 1978, Reinhold Messner makes the first ascent without supplemental oxygen. Messner is seen here at Munich Airport showing reporters his frozen thumb after climbing to the top of Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, alone and without an oxygen mask. Hide Caption 14 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest French climber Jean-Marc Boivin becomes the first person to paraglide from Everest's summit in September 1998. Hide Caption 15 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest The 1996 climbing season was one of the deadliest, when 15 people died on Everest, eight in a single storm in May of that year. Hide Caption 16 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Francys Distefano-Arsentiev became the first American woman to reach Everest's summit without bottled oxygen on May 23, 1998. However, she and her husband, Sergei Arsentiev, never made it off the mountain. They died after becoming separated while attempting to descend in the dark. At least one climbing party found Francys barely conscious, but there was nothing they could do to save her. Her husband's body was found years later. It is believed he fell while trying to save his wife. Hide Caption 17 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Pemba Dorje Sherpa and Moni Mulepati became the first people to get married on Everest's summit, on March 30, 2005. The couple are seen here waving from base camp on June 2, 2005. Hide Caption 18 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Sherpa climbers pose at Everest Base Camp after collecting garbage during the Everest cleanup expedition on May 28, 2010. A group of 20 Nepalese climbers collected nearly two tons of garbage in a high-risk expedition to clean up the world's highest peak. Hide Caption 19 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Mountaineer Ralf Dujmovits took this image of a long line of climbers heading up Everest in May 2012. Hide Caption 20 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Jordan Romero became the youngest person to reach the summit, at age 13, on May 22, 2013. Jordan, right, is seen here on the summit with one of the Sherpas who helped him make the ascent. Hide Caption 21 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Yuichiro Miura, became the oldest person to summit Everest, on May 23, 2013, at the age of 80. Hide Caption 22 of 23 Photos: Exploring Mount Everest Malavath Poorna, left, holds up her national flag on May 24, when the 13-year-old daughter of poor Indian farmers became the youngest girl to climb Everest. Hide Caption 23 of 23
Strydom also is upset that she had to learn of her daughter's death on the Internet.
"For two, three days not a word," she said. Someone finally called her on Tuesday, she said.
Now Strydom is focused on retrieving Marisa's body from Everest and returning her to Australia.
"We are totally devastated. Everything we did was to get her body back, because they just abandon bodies on the mountain if they're dead. If you're alive, they try to rescue you, like they did with Rob. If you didn't survive they leave you on the mountain. So our whole fight was just to get her off that mountain and back home," she said.
"I don't know how I'm going to live without her, but if she was abandoned on that mountain, I know I wouldn't have made it," she said. "It's the toughest thing that ever happened to me. Such a lovely girl, so talented so giving, and a life wasted." ||||| The husband of an Australian university lecturer who died climbing Mount Everest has said he “blames [himself]” after leaving her behind to press on to the summit.
Maria Strydom, 34, was forced to turn back just 15 minutes from the top of Everest when she fell ill with altitude sickness. On her way back down the mountain she started struggling to speak or walk before she collapsed and could not be revived.
She died in the arms of her husband, Robert Gropel, who told Australia’s Seven Network he “still can’t look at any pictures of her because it breaks my heart”.
“I asked, ‘Do you mind if I go on,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you go on, I’ll wait for you here,’” said Mr Gropel, who himself suffered attitude sickness and later had to be airlifted to Kathmandu. “From that position the summit didn’t look that far, 15 minutes away.
“When I made it to the summit of Everest it wasn’t special to me, because I didn’t have her there,” he said.
“I just ran up and down and it didn’t mean anything to me.”
Mr Gropel said his thought processes were hampered by his own sickness when he returned to Ms Strydom after reaching the summit.
“It took a while for me to register that I had medication, and so as soon as I realised I gave her a dexamethasone injection,” he said.
Sherpas brought more oxygen and, with that and the medication, Ms Strydom’s condition began to improve. But it did not last, and she died at an altitude of around 8,000 metres last Saturday.
Mr Gropel said: “I’m her husband, it’s my job to protect my wife and get her home and it’s just natural for me to blame myself.”
Mr Gropel, a vet, and his wife were both vegans and determined to climb the world’s highest peaks “to prove that vegans can do anything and more”, Ms Strydom said in March.
Everest officials said on Friday that the body of an Indian climber had been found above the South Col (7,900 metres), bringing the death toll since the mountain was re-opened this spring to four.
Everest has been climbed by more than 7,300 people since 1953 when Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary made their pioneering ascent. In that time and including this week’s deaths, at least 283 people have died trying to make the expedition. ||||| Dr Strydom's sister, Aletta Newman, said on Monday morning that she was furious Arnold Coster Expeditions still had not contacted her, or Dr Strydom's parents, to express condolences. The family has heard conflicting stories about how and where she died. Maria Strydom, who died on a climb to the summit of Mount Everest, with her husband, Robert Gropal. Credit:Facebook Relatives were turning their thoughts to whether they could recover Dr Strydom's body. "[Dr Gropel] doesn't want to leave without her," Ms Newman said. "Given that she is 8000 metres up a mountain, we feel that there is nothing that we can really do. We can't really go and see her and get her down ourselves." Hundreds of bodies of hikers, who perished while trying to reach the summit, remain on the mountain because it is too hard to recover them.
Ms Newman said the family "really, really hopes" it can recover Dr Strydom's body, and would not organise a funeral or memorial service until it knew for sure. Maria Strydom and husband Robert Gropel. "It just wouldn't feel right leaving her up there alone. It will make it so much harder". The expedition company confirmed in a statement that Dr Strydom [who was also known as Marisa] did not make it to the summit. Dr Strydom (centre) at her wedding with her best friend, Carly Moulang (right).
"Halfway between the South Summit and Balcony she was hardly able to move and became very confused," the company wrote in a blog post. "Her husband and several Sherpas struggled all night to bring her down, and miraculously she made it back to the South Col 2am that night, after spending 31 hours above the camp. Dr Strydom and Ms Moulang. "We managed to stabilise her that night with medicine & oxygen, and Marisa was able to walk out of the tent herself the next morning. Helicopter rescue is only possible from Camp 3, so we continued our descent the next morning. "Marisa was able to walk herself, but two hours out of camp she collapsed on the 'Geneva Spur'. Her husband tried to retrieve her, but this was not possible any more. Rob was evacuated by helicopter from Camp 2 the next day and is in Kathmandu now."
Rescuers were assembling teams to try to recover Dr Strydom's body, as well as that of a fellow climber. Meanwhile, Dr Gropel's uncle said he had warned the couple not to attempt the climb. Kurt Gropel made the comments as his brother and wife flew from Melbourne to Kathmandu on Monday to be with their son, who is battling a build-up of fluid in his lungs. "I had a foreboding, a bad feeling," he said. "I said, 'I don't want you to go' – they weren't very happy about that." Mr Gropel said Dr Gropel and his wife had been extremely fit before the climb after intense training.
"Everest is a killer," he said. "There are 200 corpses up there that decorate the path. They are all people who thought they could go up and down." Mr Gropel said he was devastated by the loss of Dr Strydom. The couple's expedition had already lost another climber by the time the elements took hold of Dr Strydom. Dutch man Eric Arnold had told companions "my body has no energy left" before dying in his sleep, according to Dutch news agency ANP. Dr Strydom and Dr Gropel began their ascent to the top of the world's highest mountain more than a month ago. They had successfully reached Camp 4, 400 metres below the summit by Friday, as indicated by the satellite pings posted online from their phones.
Furtengi Sherpa, the operational manager of Seven Summit Treks, said Dr Strydom had been battling illness as the final push to the summit began. "She was tired and energy was down," he said. Suffering from altitude sickness and just hundreds of metres from the summit, she was forced to turn back through the "death zone", where oxygen-starved climbers battle against frostbite, low-atmospheric pressures and fierce winds, and bodies litter the climbing trail. "She could not resist any more her weakness and she stopped breathing right there," said Mr Furtengi. While the Department of Foreign Affairs tries to get the couple home, tributes have begun to flow for Dr Strydom, a banking and finance expert.
Dr Strydom's friend Carly Moulang paid tribute on Monday, saying her friend trained for more than a year. "She was not a risk taker, she was not willing to take unnecessary risks and she was strongly of the belief that she would return safe, even if it meant that she didn't summit. In the case that she did not reach the summit, she was prepared to return to Everest for another attempt," Ms Moulang said. "The Monash University community is deeply saddened by the tragic news of the loss of Dr Strydom on Mount Everest," the university said in a statement. Dr Strydom and Dr Gropel were passionate vegan campaigners and wanted to tackle Everest to challenge the diet's stereotypes. "It seems that people have this warped idea of vegans being malnourished and weak," Dr Strydom said in March. "By climbing the seven summits we want to prove that vegans can do anything and more." | – The mother of a vegan who died trying to climb Mount Everest is demanding answers—about whether the climb was conducted safely and why, for days, no one informed her that her daughter was dead. Speaking from Australia, Maritha Strydom tells CNN she was following satellite "pings" of daughter Maria Strydom's climb last Saturday when the signal blanked out. "I was worried when the pings stopped, and we started calling but no one could give us any answers," says Maritha. "So my other daughter ... Googled and found in the Himalayan Times that my daughter had passed away." What's more, Maritha and her daughter heard "not a word" about the tragedy—one of four Everest deaths over a four-day span—until they received a call on Tuesday. Maritha also says guides let Maria and husband Robert Gropel stay too long in the so-called "death zone," an oxygen-poor area around 26,200 feet where altitude sickness and frostbite are common dangers. Maria "felt weak and decided to turn around," her mom says, but when Maria got medication and tried climbing back down, "she suddenly collapsed." Now Maritha is trying retrieve her daughter's body from the mountain, where survivors are often rescued and victims get left behind (here's the fundraising page to pay for her return to Australia). Seems Maria and her husband each paid $34,500 for the climb in a pretty sketchy, unregulated market: "You [can] have a circumstance of unskilled people leading other unskilled people in the most dangerous mountain environment you can get," veteran climber Andrew Lock tells the Australian. (Maria was trying to prove that a Vegan could climb Everest.) |
Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker drinks giant Diageo is reportedly being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations it tried to artificially boost sales figures by shipping excess inventory to distributors.
Sending more cases to distributors than they have ordered could potentially have allowed Diageo to report increased sales and shipments.
The British company, the world’s largest producer of spirits, confirmed to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story, that it was cooperating with the SEC on an investigation. “Diageo has received an inquiry from the US Securities and Exchange Commission regarding its distribution in the United States. Diageo is working to respond fully to the SEC’s requests for information in this matter,” the company said in a statement. The SEC declined to comment.
The inquiry comes at a sensitive moment for Diageo. Last month the company’s shares soared after reports that Brazil’s richest man, billionaire deal-maker Jorge Paulo Lemann, was considering a takeover. Lemann has led a series of ever larger brewery takeovers culminating in 2004’s merger of Brazil’s AmBev with Belgium’s Interbrew to create the world’s largest beer company. Diageo owns Guinness as well as its portfolio of spirits and wine brands.
The takeover rumour coincided with the announcement that North American president Larry Schwartz would be retiring by the end of the year. Diageo has since announced the departures of its chief marketing officer for North America and a president of national accounts in the US.
North America accounts for about a third of Diageo’s $17.58bn in sales and around 45% of operating profit. Sales have been in decline in the region since 2011. Next week the company will release its second-quarter results and is likely to be quizzed further by shareholders and analysts about the SEC inquiry. ||||| The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Diageo DEO 0.06% PLC has been shipping excess inventory to distributors in an effort to boost the liquor company’s results, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
By sending more cases to distributors than wanted, the British-based owner of Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker would be able to report increased sales and shipments, according to these people.
Diageo confirmed Thursday to The Wall Street Journal that it received an inquiry from the SEC regarding its distribution in the U.S.
“Diageo is working to respond fully to the SEC’s requests for information in this matter,” a company spokeswoman said.
Diageo’s American depositary receipts fell 5% Thursday afternoon, following the Journal’s report on the inquiry, and ended the day down $4.99, or 4.2%, to $114.67.
The inquiry coincides with a period of tumult in Diageo’s executive ranks. The company announced in June that North American President Larry Schwartz would be retiring by the end of the year. Since then, the company has also announced the departures of its chief marketing officer for North America and a president of national accounts in the U.S.
It recently named Deirdre Mahlan, currently chief financial officer, as president of Diageo North America.
The North American region is the largest and most important to Diageo’s bottom line. It accounted for about a third of the company’s $15.9 billion in sales in 2014 and around 45% of operating profit. Volume in the region decreased 1% last year, but price increases helped sales rise 3% to about $5.34 billion.
Diageo—which reports full-year results next week—has suffered through a period of slumping sales in the U.S. The company raised prices under former Chief Executive Paul Walsh, and its U.S. market share declined every year between 2011 and 2014, according to Exane BNP Paribas.
Diageo’s blockbuster Smirnoff brand struggled as consumers grew tired of flavored vodka. Interest in Captain Morgan has also waned, and the rum hasn’t been popular as a shot, a trend that has grown in popularity of late. Diageo also lost market share last year in Canadian whisky as its Crown Royal brand adapted to the flavored whiskey trend later than rivals.
In the U.S., liquor producers follow a three-tier system to market. Producers like Diageo ship to wholesalers, who then ship to retailers. Liquor companies can record shipments as sales when they ship them to the wholesaler.
Diageo Chief Executive Ivan Menezes said during a call with analysts in January that the company has shifted its focus from shipments, which reflect sales to distributors, to depletions, which reflect sales by distributors to retailers. He said the company was reducing the level of inventory distributors carry to get “better visibility on customer depletions.”
Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes Photo: Bloomberg News
Pernod-Ricard , the world’s second-largest publicly traded liquor company, emphasizes depletions during earnings reports and uses that as a benchmark for performance. Brown-Forman Corp. , the largest publicly traded U.S. spirits company, measures its volume performance with depletions.
Diageo has about a 20% share of the U.S. spirits market, according to the industry tracking service Impact Databank. It became the market leader after Mr. Menezes’s predecessor, Paul Walsh, exited businesses like Burger King and Pillsbury and focused on alcohol, scooping up Seagram Co. brands Captain Morgan and Crown Royal in a $5 billion deal.
Write to Tripp Mickle at [email protected] and Saabira Chaudhuri at [email protected] ||||| The US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has launched an investigation into whether drinks company Diageo has been shipping excess stocks to customers to boost results.
Sending customers more cases than they had ordered would allow Diageo to report higher sales than were placed.
Diageo said it was "working to respond fully to the SEC's requests for information in this matter".
Shares in Diageo closed down 2.1% at £18.66 following the news.
The US market accounts for nearly $18bn of Diageo's annual sales.
But sales in the region have been falling since 2011.
Diageo - which makes drinks including Smirnoff vodka, Guinness and Johnnie Walker whiskey - saw its share price surge last month on reports of a possible £50bn takeover bid from the Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann and his private equity partners.
In the second half of last year the world's biggest distiller of Scotch whisky reported a sharp fall in sales in some of its key markets.
Diageo said profits fell by 18% to £1.7bn, while overall sales were down 1%.
Trading conditions in parts of Europe and Russia, described as "tough" at the start of the year by the company, are thought to remain difficult. | – British booze giant Diageo is feeling the burn in the US: The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating claims that company sent American distributors more inventory than they requested, which would have allowed it to record a false spike in sales, the Guardian reports. Diageo tells the Wall Street Journal it has received an "inquiry" and is "working to respond fully to the SEC's requests for information in this matter." Diageo, which makes Smirnoff, Guinness, Captain Morgan, and Johnnie Walker, among others, has about a 20% share of the American spirits market; about a third of the company's $15.9 billion in sales last year came from North America. The BBC reports sales have been falling in the US since 2011. |
Zimmerman lawyer: Client convicted by media
(CBS News) Lawyers for George Zimmerman said their client has been convicted by the media for the shooting of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin, and that no crime was committed under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" statute because the neighborhood watch volunteer acted out of fear for his life.
Appearing on "CBS This Morning," attorney Hal Uhrig said that the fatal shooting of Martin on February 26 has been presented by the media as a "rush to judgment story - I guess that started with Johnnie Cochran and the O.J. Simpson case. It's certainly an example here. This case had momentum created by a lot of misinformation."
Uhrig pointed, as an example, to a picture of Martin that shows him apparently as a "12-year-old boy instead of a 6'3" [17]-year-old varsity football player who got into a confrontation with somebody six inches shorter than him."
Complete Coverage: The Trayvon Martin Shooting
When asked by Charlie Rose what Zimmerman would like to tell the public about the events of that night, Uhrig replied, "The short version of that is that he didn't commit any crime. He was where he was allowed to be, not committing a crime, confronted by someone else who started the violent confrontation physically. He was attacked, broke his nose, hit his head into the ground and he defended himself. That's not against the law."
Uhrig said the Florida "Stand Your Ground" statute applied because Zimmerman feared for his life: "One of the points people have said, the force [used against Martin] was too much, even if he broke his nose and slammed his head into the ground. Many people remember the case of Liam Neeson's wife - fell on a little ski slope, hit her head one time on the ground, and died. We're familiar with the shaken baby syndrome: You shake a baby the brain shakes around inside the skull, you can die.
"When someone is pounding your head on the ground, and you've already had your nose broken, you could be in reasonable fear for great bodily harm - which is what the Florida statute calls for - and if you think you're about to lose your life or be seriously injured like that, you're absolutely entitled to take the necessary action to stop it."
"Are you saying that's what Mr. Zimmerman said - he thought he was in fear of losing his life and so he shot Trayvon Martin?" asked Rose.
"I can confirm that without telling you any specific words, that's exactly what he thought," Urhig replied.
Craig Sonner, another Zimmerman attorney, said law enforcement agrees with Zimmerman's decision to stay in hiding, citing threats against his client. In fact, both lawyers confirmed that they have not met with Zimmerman face-to-face, only speaking by phone, though Uhrig said an in-person meeting would happen "fairly soon."
Uhrig explained that procedurally the State Attorney of Duvall County Angela Corey, who was assigned by Florida's governor to the case, will take her time in her investigation and then decide whether or not to take it to a grand jury.
"If she takes it to a grand jury, then at least 12 members of the grand jury would have to vote for either an indictment or what's called a 'no true' bill, which is to say, 'Wow if you look at all the evidence now instead of just listening to the loudest voice in the crowd, it really was not a crime,'" Uhrig said.
To watch the complete interview with Hal Uhrig and Craig Sonner, click on the video player above. ||||| Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday strongly criticized stand-your-ground laws that allow a person who believes he is in danger to use deadly force in self-defense.
Holder said he was concerned about the case of Trayvon Martin, in which George Zimmermann was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges, and said the Justice Department has an open investigation into what happened.
But he added: "Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation's attention, it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods."
In an address to an NAACP convention, Holder said it's time to question laws that "senselessly expand the concept of self-defense."
The attorney general said the country must take a hard look at laws that contribute to "more violence than they prevent."
Such laws "try to fix something that was never broken," he said.
Florida is among the states that have stand-your-ground laws, and the issue played a role in the prosecution of Zimmerman, whose acquittal has spurred calls for the U.S. Justice Department to file criminal civil rights charges against the former neighborhood watch volunteer.
Legal experts say a federal case would be a difficult challenge, with prosecutors having to prove that Zimmerman was motivated by racial animosity to kill Martin, who was 17 when he was shot during the fight with Zimmerman in February 2012.
On Monday, Holder had called the killing a "tragic, unnecessary shooting death" and urged the nation to speak honestly about complicated and emotionally charged issues.
On Tuesday, Holder seemed to be shifting away from the Martin case to one of those issues _ the debate over the stand-your-ground laws.
"There has always been a legal defense for using deadly force if _ and the `if' is important _ no safe retreat is available," Holder told the NAACP.
"But we must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat, outside their home, if they can do so safely," he said.
In his comments referencing the Zimmerman case, Holder offered a story from his own personal experience _ describing how when he was a young black man his father had told him how to interact with the police, what to say and how to conduct himself if he was ever stopped or confronted in a way he thought was unwarranted.
"I'm sure my father felt certain _ at the time _ that my parents' generation would be the last that had to worry about such things for their children," Holder told the NAACP convention. "Trayvon's death last spring caused me to sit down to have a conversation with my own 15-year-old son, like my dad did with me. This was a father-son tradition I hoped would not need to be handed down."
___
Yost reported from Washington. | – The man who shot Trayvon Martin in what he says was a case of self-defense is keeping out of the public eye, but George Zimmerman's lawyer went on CNN last night to rebut the notion that his client is racist. Zimmerman and his wife mentored two black teens, even after the official mentoring program folded, and also helped a black church raise money, said lawyer Craig Sonner. "I do not believe that's the indication of a person who's a racist." (The Washington Post notes that Zimmerman's father is white and his mother Latino, providing "no tidy way" to categorize him, and an Orlando Sentinel profile includes a quote from his dad strenuously rejecting the "racist" label as well.) Another big issue in the case revolves around Florida's "stand your ground" law, but Sonner doesn't think it's relevant here. "In my legal opinion, that's not really applicable to this case," he told Anderson Cooper. "The statute on 'stand your ground' is primarily when you're in your house. This is self-defense, and that's been around for forever—that you have a right to defend yourself. So the next issue (that) is going to come up is, was he justified in using the amount of force he did?" The Dallas Morning News spoke to Jeb Bush, the governor who signed the measure into law, and he, too, thinks it's irrelevant. "This law does not apply to this particular circumstance," he said. "Stand your ground means stand your ground means stand your ground. It doesn't mean chase after somebody who's turned their back." |
Not one person managed to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 2015, for the first time since 1974.
Last year also saw the highest death toll ever on earth’s highest mountain (8,848m), with as many as 24 people killed in a single day in April when a 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal causing a huge avalanche. It is the deadliest day in Everest history, surpassing the day in April 2014 when 16 were killed by an avalanche.
Estimates vary for the death toll on the mountain last April, with the number of dead ranging from 18 to 24.
The Nepal earthquake killed more than 8,000 people across the country and injured more than 21,000.
The failure of any climbers to reach the Himalayan summit in 2015, the first time this has happened in 41 years, is in part down to the fact that the mountain was all-but shut after the earthquake.
"Earthquakes are mean beasts, natural disasters, that strike with no warning, destroy at random" Climber Alan Arnette
The Nepalese government was initially keen for mountaineers not to cancel their expeditions after the avalanche, but broken ladders on the mountain and a second quake in early May meant these plans were abandoned.
Everest’s death toll now stands at 289, though estimates on this figure vary too.
• Sixty fascinating Everest facts
There have been several years when the annual death toll has exceeded 10: 1982 (11 dead), 1996 (15); 2006 (11) and 2014 (16).
Photo: Getty
Writing on his annual summary blog, professional climber Alan Arnette said of 2015: “This summary, while about the Everest season, is also about a human tragedy where thousands lost their lives, multiples of that are now homeless and many no longer have a way to make a living. Earthquakes are mean beasts, natural disasters, that strike with no warning, destroy at random.”
He entitled his post, Summits Don’t Matter.
Prior to 1974, the summit was reached seven of the 22 years since 1953.
• Mount Everest: the trip of a lifetime
In 1974 six people were killed by an avalanche.
The mountain reopened to tourism in August, with just one climber permit awarded to Japanese mountaineer Nobukazu Kuriki, who had tried four times to reach the summit, losing all his fingers to frostbite in the process. He failed on his fifth attempt in October, giving up 700 metres from the summit. ||||| Image copyright Reuters Image caption Nobukazu Kuriki: "I realised if I kept going, I wouldn't be able to come back alive."
A Japanese mountaineer who had previously lost nine fingers to frostbite has abandoned his attempt to climb Mount Everest.
"I tried hard taking all my energy, but it took too much time to move in deep deep snow," Nobukazu Kuriki wrote on his Facebook page.
"I realised if I kept going, I wouldn't be able to come back alive," he wrote.
He took the decision after attempting a final push to reach the 8,848m (29,029ft) summit.
The 33-year-old was the first person to attempt the climb since Nepal's devastating earthquake in April.
It was the fifth time he had tried to reach the summit in the past six years.
Mr Kuriki wrote that he decided to abandon his attempt after leaving "the final camp" on Saturday evening.
"Thank you so much for all your support," he said.
He was following the same route used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay when they became the first people to reach the summit in 1953.
Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption Nobukazu Kuriki is close to reaching the summit of Everest, in the top right of this image
Mr Kuriki prefers to climb in winter, alone and with minimal gear. "This is the purest form of climbing and it is worth the extra danger," he said earlier.
He has taken on Everest alone four times in the previous six years but has been forced to abandon the climb each time with the summit in view.
In 2012, he lost all of his fingers and one thumb after spending two days in a snow hole at 8,230m in temperatures lower than -20C.
His injuries present significant challenges in even the most basic climbing manoeuvres.
"I do feel nervous and afraid," he told Reuters shortly after arriving in Nepal a more than a month ago for acclimatising.
"This is only natural before attempting the challenge of climbing Everest, particularly after the earthquake and at this time of year."
Nepal's lucrative climbing industry was destroyed by the 25 April earthquake which killed more than 9,000 people and the avalanches that followed. ||||| Nobukazu Kuriki, who lost all his fingertips to frostbite three years ago, was trying to be the first person to summit Everest since its worst disaster
A Japanese climber who lost all his fingertips to frostbite and was trying to become the first person to conquer Mount Everest since its worst disaster has abandoned his attempt to reach the summit because of poor weather.
Nobukazu Kuriki, 33, gave up his attempt about 700 metres (2,300ft) below the the 8,850-metre summit.
'We have nothing': survivors of Nepal's second quake left beyond hopeless Read more
“I tried my best, but I judged that I would not be able to come back alive if I went any further given the strong winds and deep snow,” Kuriki wrote on his Twitter account after descending some way on Thursday.
Climbers usually scale Everest and other Himalayan peaks in May, just before the rainy season sweeps in from the south, bringing snow at high altitude.
But there is also a short climbing season in the autumn, after the summer rains ease.
Members of the climbing community in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, said Kuriki’s summit attempt so late in the year was too dangerous, with the increased risk of avalanches and high winds capable of blowing people off the mountain.
Nepal quake: Everest base camp 'looked like it had been flattened by bomb' Read more
It was his first attempt to climb Everest since losing all of his fingertips on the mountain three years ago after spending two days in a snow hole at 8,230 metres in temperatures below -20C.
Even without fingertips, he can grip an ice axe with one hand and pin it with the other.
“I am grateful to everyone’s support from the bottom of my heart,” he said.
Kuriki had became an unlikely face of Nepal’s efforts to revive its climbing industry after at least 18 mountaineers were killed in the Everest region in avalanches triggered by a big earthquake in April.
The earthquake in April, and a second big one in May, killed nearly 9,000 people across the poor Himalayan nation. | – For the first time in 41 years, not a single person stood on the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak at 29,029 feet, during an entire calendar year. But that's not even close to the worst of what 2015 brought, as famed climber Alan Arnette reports in his year-end blog summary titled "Summits Don't Matter." After a record 358 permits were issued to individual climbers at the start of the year, a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck Nepal in April, claiming 8,000-plus lives across the country and a record 18 (or 24, the numbers vary) on the mountain, reports the Telegraph. The deadliest day in the mountain's history came almost exactly one year after the previous record, when an avalanche claimed 16 lives in April 2014. Everest "inspires humility," the Takeaway reports, but every year the ante is raised as more climbers try to reach the summit and more Sherpas and their families come to rely on mountaineering and trekking tourism. As such the government of Nepal at first hesitated to shut down the mountain following the disaster in April 2015, but another earthquake in May, as well as broken ladders, forced them to issue no more permits until the end of the summer, when famed Japanese climber Nobukazu Kuriki, who'd lost all his fingers during one of his previous four bids on the mountain, gave it another go. He abandoned his campaign just 2,300 feet from the summit in late September, the Guardian reported at the time, and the mountain let no one else through. (A Google exec was among the dead in 2015.) |
They were driving near the Maine Mall when they saw the message written in bright yellow paint on the rear window of another car: “Looking for someone to donate me their kidney. Must have type O blood.” There was a phone number.
“I looked over,” says Ashley Dall-Leighton, “and I go, ‘Oh, my God, that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever read.’ And he’s like, ‘What?’ And I read it out loud, and he said, ‘Did you get the number? Text her right now.'”
And that’s how Josh Dall-Leighton, a 30-year-old corrections officer from Windham with three children, came to offer one of his kidneys to a woman he’d never met.
•••
Christine Royles of South Portland was diagnosed with lupus in December of 2013. A few months later, doctors discovered she had a second autoimmune disease, ANCA vasculitis.
They also told her that her kidneys were failing.
Only 23, she joined a waiting list of more than 100,000 people in the United States who need kidney transplants, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
Fewer than 17,000 receive one each year, with about a third of the kidneys coming from living donors. In 2013, 4,453 patients died while waiting for kidney transplants.
Christine didn’t like those odds. She decided to take matters into her own hands.
“I saw a story about this old man in a different state who was asking for a kidney for his wife,” says Christine, now 24. “He stood on the side of the road with a sign.”
Instead of standing on the side of the road, she decided to turn her car into a rolling billboard.
“My fiancé thought it was kind of weird,” she says.
But it worked.
•••
Kidneys are bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist, that sit in the rear of the abdominal cavity. Their job is to filter waste from the bloodstream. Humans are born with two, but it’s possible to lead a healthy life with one.
“You can live with one kidney,” says Jen Dalton, the clinical coordinator at Maine Nephrology Associates, “because that one kidney essentially takes over the job of two.”
People who need transplants are put on the national waiting list, but they can bypass it by finding a living donor themselves. Most living donors are family members, friends and acquaintances. But more and more, people are expanding the search.
“We see people using social medial or putting ads out for altruistic donors,” says Sean Roach, the public relations manager for the National Kidney Foundation. “It takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there like that.”
Finding a willing candidate is only the first step. A recent study presented to the American Society of Nephrology found that fewer than half of Americans meet the criteria to donate; those who aren’t eligible have health conditions such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Many others simply can’t afford to take the time off from work; the average donor stays in the hospital for at least two days and takes three to six weeks to recuperate.
A person who donates a kidney is generally able to lead a full, healthy life afterward but should be tested regularly for signs of potential kidney damage. They are advised to keep their weight and blood pressure down, but don’t require special diets or medication.
“In absolute numbers,” says Dr. John Vella, director of the Maine Transplant Program, “the chance of a kidney donor needing dialysis at some point is very much less than 1 percent.”
•••
Josh, who works as a corrections officer at the Southern Maine Re-Entry Center in Alfred, says he didn’t think twice after seeing the sign on Christine’s car.
“I just looked at my wife and said, ‘I have to try,'” he says. “I think it was the fact that I have three kids of my own, and that really resonated with me. If (my wife) needed a kidney and I couldn’t provide for her, I would hope that somebody else would kind of step up and help her out.” The Dall-Leightons’ twins, Mason and Christopher, are 10 months old. Their brother, Hayden, is 5.
Christine put Josh in touch with Maine Medical Center’s Transplant Program. After undergoing extensive tests this winter, Josh learned last month that he is a strong potential match.
He and Ashley texted Christine with the news.
“I started crying,” Christine says, “because, oh, my God, I can’t believe he’s gonna do this for me.”
Ashley was wary at first about the prospect of her husband donating a kidney, but quickly put her concerns aside.
“(Josh) just told me all along that this is what he needs to do, and if this is what he needs to do, then I support him 100 percent,” she says.
•••
Christine and the Dall-Leightons, who had been getting to know each other through texting and Facebook, finally met for the first time Tuesday.
Christine drove to Windham and knocked on the couple’s door, holding the hand of her 2-year-old son, Talan. Josh, holding 10-month-old Christopher in his arms, opened the door and gave her a hug.
She told him it’s hard to find the words to say thank you. But Josh said it isn’t necessary.
“I just want you to get better,” he says. “I just want to hear that donating helped you.”
For now, Christine continues to live a life consumed by her disease: weekly doctors’ appointments, trips to the hospital, mountains of medication. Every night, after she gets home from her job waitressing at Applebee’s and reads a bedtime story to Talan, she tethers herself for 10 hours to the portable dialysis machine that keeps her alive.
Because Christine has permanent kidney failure, Medicare is covering the cost of the transplant, which averaged roughly $262,000 in 2011, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. Final testing on Josh should be completed in the next few weeks, and the transplant surgery is tentatively scheduled for mid-May. He expects to be out of work, on unpaid leave, for about a month.
Christine is now trying to raise money to help the family that’s helping to save her life.
“I’m shocked that someone is going to do this for me,” Christine says. “The fact that someone with a young family is going to take time off work to help some random person is unbelievable to me.”
But Josh says his gift to her isn’t a debt to be repaid. It’s simply the right thing to do.
As he talks, his twin sons squirm in his lap.
“I want these boys to know that if somebody needs help, you do whatever you can to help them,” he says. “I want them to know these aren’t just words I’m telling them. That I actually did something to help somebody.”
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This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. ||||| A fundraising effort for a man who’s donating one of his kidneys to a complete stranger has caused a major snag for the woman who needs it.
Josh Dall-Leighton, 30, a father of three young children, offered to give a kidney to Christine Royles, 24, a single mother of a 2-year-old boy, after seeing a sign on her car that said she needed one. Royles, stunned by the man’s generosity, then began organizing fundraisers such as a pancake breakfast to help pay his bills while he takes time off from his job as a corrections officer. Someone else established an online fund for Dall-Leighton, which so far has raised nearly $48,000 from roughly 750 donors.
That campaign, on GoFundMe.com, is now causing a major headache.
Dall-Leighton and his wife, Ashley, say Maine Medical Center told them Wednesday that it has concerns about the amount of money raised to help the Windham couple. The transplant surgery is now on hold, the Dall-Leightons say.
They immediately called Royles with that information.
“I don’t know what to feel,” said Royles, who lives in South Portland. “I think I’m just kind of in shock.”
Maine Med spokeswoman Sue Pierter said the hospital would not comment on the case Wednesday. “We are working through the donor process as we do with all patients of the Maine Transplant Program,” she said.
The hospital’s hesitancy may have to do with ethical guidelines concerning donations. It is illegal to sell organs, and even the appearance that someone is profiting from a donation would be problematic for a health care institution.
There have been cases in which people have tried to profit from selling organs, and hospitals are especially wary when the donor is not a relative, said Dr. Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University School of Medicine.
“As a hospital, you can’t be associated in any way with anything that could be construed as the sale of a kidney,” Caplan said.
GENEROUS DONATIONS ADD COMPLICATIONS
Royles’ kidneys are failing because of an autoimmune disease. When she was diagnosed with the condition at age 22, she joined a list of more than 100,000 people in the United States who are awaiting kidneys from donors. Each year fewer than 17,000 receive one, and about one-third come from living donors.
Royles didn’t like those odds, so she took an unusual approach to finding her own donor – putting a message on the rear windshield of her car advertising her need for a kidney.
Dall-Leighton and his wife saw the car while driving near the Maine Mall in South Portland in November, and they immediately texted her. After going through a battery of tests, he learned last month that he is a strong potential match. A tentative date for the transplant surgery had been set for May 19. Royles and others then started trying to raise money to help the family.
A friend of the Dall-Leightons set up the GoFundMe site, hoping to raise $6,000 to cover his unpaid time off while he recovers from the surgery. That fund ballooned after the Portland Press Herald published a story and video about their situation, which was in turn picked up by local, national and international media.
“I didn’t raise any money,” Dall-Leighton said. “People’s generosity far exceeded … never in our wildest dreams did we imagine it would reach this.”
KIDNEY DONOR FEELS UNFAIRLY ATTACKED
Dall-Leighton was scheduled for a final compatibility test Wednesday, but instead the couple say they were told that the transplant program was concerned about the amount of money that was being raised. They said the program told them that they should donate the money to other organizations, and suggested that all the attention he’s been getting may make him feel like he wouldn’t be able to back out of the donation.
Dall-Leighton said he and his wife were stunned by what they heard.
“It kind of seemed like the whole facility was against Ashley and I,” he said. “I felt attacked, like I had done something wrong.”
His wife said her husband’s offer of a kidney has nothing to do with money – he just wants to save a life.
She said the couple has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity, and moved by the positive comments people left after making donations on GoFundMe.
“Not one comment has said, ‘I’m going to give you $500 to buy your kidney for Christine,’ ” she said. “All the comments are, ‘God bless you – you’ve warmed my heart.’ ”
The Dall-Leightons said the transplant program told them they’d be back in touch with him Friday. Royles does have a 59-year-old uncle in Syracuse who’s a potential match, but Dall-Leighton is considered to be a much stronger candidate.
In the meantime, the couple is worried about what will happen to Royles.
“It’s really upsetting,” Ashley said. “This is Christine’s life.”
Staff Writer Joe Lawlor contributed to this report.
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This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. | – It's not everyone who appeals to strangers they pass on the road to give them an organ, and it's definitely not everyone who spots such an appeal, turns to his wife, and says, "Did you get her number? Text her right now." But two such strangers found each other on a road in Maine, reports the Portland Press Herald, after 24-year-old Christine Royles scrawled this plea on her car window: "Looking for someone to donate me their kidney. Must have type O blood." Diagnosed with lupus-related kidney failure early last year, Royles went on a waiting list of 100,000; of those, some 17,000 a year get transplants. Not liking her chances, Royles tried her unusual approach. "My fiance thought it was kind of weird," she says. Josh Dall-Leighton did not; he got in touch with Royles, and has since been identified as a potential match. "I started crying," Royles says of getting the news, "because, oh, my God, I can’t believe he’s gonna do this for me." Not only is the 30-year-old dad of three sons doing it—surgery is set for May—he's going to be on unpaid leave for about a month afterward. Dall-Leighton shrugs it off as the right thing to do; he notes that his own twins were born premature and had medical problems, WMTW reports. "I want these boys to know that if somebody needs help, you do whatever you can to help them," he says. "I want them to know these aren’t just words I’m telling them. That I actually did something to help somebody." A GoFundMe account is seeking to raise money for Dall-Leighton while he's out of work. (There are some nice people out there giving away their kidneys.) |
(Reuters) - New details from court documents and sources close to the Libor scandal investigation suggest that groups of traders working at three major European banks were heavily involved in rigging global benchmark interest rates.
Some of those traders, including one who used to work at Barclays Plc in New York, still have senior positions on Wall Street trading desks.
Until now, most of the attention has involved traders at Barclays, which last month reached a $453 million settlement with U.S. and UK authorities for its role in the manipulation of rates. Now, it is becoming clear that traders from at least two other banks - UK-based Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Switzerland's UBS AG - played a central role.
Among them, the three banks employed more than a dozen traders who sought to influence rates in either dollar, euro or yen rates. Some of the traders who are being probed have worked for several banks under scrutiny, raising the possibility that the rate fixing became more ingrained as traders changed jobs.
The documents reviewed by Reuters in analyzing the traders' involvement included court filings by Canadian regulators who have been investigating potential antitrust issues; settlement documents with Barclays filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington and by the Financial Services Authority in the U.K.; and a private employment lawsuit filed by a former RBS trader in Singapore's High Court.
The scandal, which began to come to light in 2008, has become a time bomb for regulators and a big focus for politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. At issue is the manipulation between at least 2005 and 2009 of rates that are used to determine the cost of trillions of dollars of borrowings, including everything from home loans to credit card rates.
One former Barclays employee under scrutiny, Reuters has learned, is Jay V. Merchant, according to people familiar with the situation. Merchant, who oversaw the U.S. dollar swaps trading desk at Barclays in New York, worked for the bank from March 2006 to October 2009, according to employment records maintained by the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Merchant currently holds a similar position at UBS, where he works out of the Swiss bank's offices in Stamford, Connecticut, according to FINRA. He did not return requests for comment.
People familiar with the investigation said authorities are looking at whether some individuals on Merchant's trading desk tried to influence the rate on Libor by communicating with other traders in London to get a higher return on certain swaps the desk was trading. His specific role is unclear.
The Department of Justice declined to comment.
Merchant's attorney, John Kenney of Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney, did not respond to requests seeking comment.
A UBS spokeswoman said that the bank has "no reason to believe Mr. Merchant has engaged in any improper conduct at UBS." The spokeswoman, who noted that Merchant is on a two-week vacation, declined to comment on the broader investigation.
Barclays declined to comment. In a statement, an RBS spokeswoman said the bank is cooperating with the investigation.
SPREAD FROM BARCLAYS
Earlier this week, Reuters reported that federal prosecutors in Washington have begun reaching out to lawyers for some of the individuals under scrutiny as they get closer to bringing possible criminal charges.
The dollar and euro rate-rigging appears to have begun in earnest in early 2005 in the dollar market, according to the documents reviewed by Reuters. By August of that year, Barclays traders were reaching out to traders at other big global banks to manipulate their rates to make them favorable to Barclays' trading positions.
Soon, the trading had crossed to the euro rate markets, according to the settlement documents filed in the Barclays investigation. And by 2007, traders at RBS and UBS were seeking to influence the yen rate market, according to documents filed in 2011 in Singapore's High Court and in Canada's Ontario Superior Court.
Traders at Barclays are believed to have participated in manipulating the rate for the dollar and the rate for the euro known as Euribor, according to documents filed in the Barclays settlement last month.
RBS and UBS traders are a focus of the global investigation because of their alleged involvement in seeking to influence yen-denominated rates.
Two RBS traders in London, Brent Davies and Will Hall, are alleged to have agreed to help a trader at UBS, Thomas Hayes, to manipulate yen Libor, according to court documents filed by the Canadian Competition Bureau.
UBS is cooperating with Canadian and U.S. authorities, according to people familiar with the situation.
Hayes worked at UBS from 2006 to 2009. He later moved to Citigroup where he remained until 2010, after which he left the bank. Hayes, Davies and Hall could not be reached for comment.
The documents reveal that Hayes also contacted traders at other banks in London to get them to manipulate yen rates. They include Peter O'Leary at HSBC Holdings Plc, Guillaume Adolph at Deutsche, and Paul Glands at JPMorgan. A second UBS employee sought to get a Citigroup trader, who formerly had worked at UBS, to influence rates.
None of these traders could be reached for comment.
CONDONED
In addition, a former trader at RBS, Tan Chi Min, said in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed in the Singapore High Court in 2011 that he was forced out for "improperly seeking to influence" the setting of Libor. Tan, who ran a trading desk at RBS, said in the suit that improper rate-rigging was known by some at the bank and condoned.
Tan denied trying to manipulate Libor, and alleged in the 2011 court filing, and one in March this year, that about a half dozen other RBS traders openly tried to request specific rates.
Tan's attorney, N. Sreenivasan, declined to comment because the court case is ongoing.
Beyond traders at the three European banks, authorities are still probing the role of others.
For example, traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co also interacted with some of the traders under scrutiny who worked for Barclays and RBS, according to a person familiar with the situation and court documents filed in Singapore.
Similarly, Deutsche Bank AG also had several employees whose trading is under scrutiny by authorities, according to people familiar with the situation and court documents filed in Canada.
JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
(Reporting by Carrick Mollenkamp and Emily Flitter in New York; Additional reporting by Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan in New York, Rachel Armstrong in Singapore, Anjuli Davies in London and Katharina Bart in Zurich; Editing by Martin Howell and Nick Macfie)
(This story has been refiled to edit the fourth paragraph) ||||| The letter ''B'' of the signage on the Barclays headquarters in Canary Wharf is hoisted up the side of the building in London July 20, 2012.
U.S. prosecutors and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with a sweeping investigation into the rigging scandal.
Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., have recently contacted lawyers representing some of the suspects to notify them that criminal charges and arrests could be imminent, said two of those sources, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is ongoing.
Defense lawyers, some of whom represent suspects, said prosecutors have indicated they plan to begin making arrests and filing criminal charges in the next few weeks. In long-running financial investigations it is not uncommon for prosecutors to contact defense lawyers before filing charges to offer suspects a chance to cooperate or take a plea, these lawyers said.
The prospect of charges and arrests means prosecutors are getting a fuller picture of how traders at major banks allegedly sought to influence the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, and other global rates that underpin hundreds of trillions of dollars in assets. The criminal charges would come alongside efforts by regulators to fine major banks, and could show that the alleged activity was not rampant at the lenders.
"The individual criminal charges have no impact on the regulatory moves against the banks," said a European source familiar with the matter. "But banks are hoping that at least regulators will see that the scandal was mainly due to individual misbehavior of a gang of traders."
In Europe, financial regulators are focusing on a ring of traders from several European banks who allegedly sought to rig benchmark interest rates such as Libor, said the European source familiar with the investigation in Europe.
The source, who did not want to be identified because the investigation is ongoing, said regulators are checking emails among a group of traders and believe they are close to piecing together a picture of how the suspects allegedly conspired to make money by manipulating rates. The rates are set daily based on an average of estimates supplied by a panel of banks.
"More than a handful of traders at different banks are involved," said the source familiar with the investigation by European regulators.
There are also probes in Europe concerning Euribor, the Euro Interbank Offered Rate.
It is not clear on which individuals and banks federal prosecutors are most focused. A top U.S. Department of Justice lawyer overseeing the investigation did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters previously reported that more than a dozen current and former employees of several large banks are under investigation, including Barclays Plc, UBS and Citigroup, and have hired defense lawyers over the past year as a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., continues to gather evidence.
Activity in the Libor investigation, which has been going on for three years, has quickened since Barclays agreed last month to pay $453 million in fines and penalties to settle allegations with regulators and prosecutors that some of its employees tried to manipulate key interest rates from 2005 through 2009.
Barclays, which signed a non-prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors, is the first major bank to reach a settlement in the investigation, which also is looking at the activities of employees at HSBC, Deutsche Bank and other major lenders.
HSBC declined to comment. Officials at Citigroup and UBS were not available for comment.
The Barclays settlement sparked outrage and a series of public hearings in Britain, after which Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond announced his resignation from the UK bank.
The revelations have raised questions about the integrity of Libor, which is used as a benchmark in setting prices for loans, mortgages and derivative contracts.
Adding to concerns are documents released by the New York Federal Reserve Bank this month that show regulators in the United States and England had some knowledge that bankers were submitting misleading Libor bids during the 2008 financial crisis to make their financial institutions appear stronger than they really were.
Among other details, the Fed documents included the transcript of an April 2008 telephone call between a Barclays trader in New York and Fed official Fabiola Ravazzolo, in which the unidentified trader said: "So, we know that we're not posting um, an honest Libor."
The source familiar with the investigation in Europe said two traders suspended from Deutsche Bank were among those being investigated. A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment.
The Financial Times said on Wednesday that regulators were looking at suspected communication among four traders who had worked at Barclays, Credit Agricole, HSBC and Deutsche Bank.
Credit Agricole said it had not been accused of any wrongdoing related to the attempted manipulation of Libor by Barclays, but had responded to requests for information from various authorities related to the matter.
Beyond regulatory penalties and criminal charges, banks face a growing number of civil lawsuits from cities, companies and financial institutions claiming they were harmed by rate manipulation. Morgan Stanley recently estimated that the 11 global banks linked to the Libor scandal may face $14 billion in regulatory and legal settlement costs through 2014.
In the United States, the regulatory investigation is being led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has made the Libor probe one of its top priorities.
(Reporting by Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan in New York and Philipp Halstrick in Frankfurt, with additional reporting by Emily Flitter in New York and Aruna Viswanatha in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Alwyn Scott, Maureen Bavdek and Dale Hudson) ||||| Regulators from Stockholm to Seoul are re-examining how benchmark borrowing costs are set amid concern they are just as vulnerable to manipulation as the London interbank offered rate.
Stibor, Sweden’s main interbank rate, Sibor, the leading rate in Singapore, and Tibor in Japan are among rates facing fresh scrutiny because, like Libor, they are based on banks’ estimated borrowing costs rather than real trades. In some cases they may be easier to rig than Libor as fewer banks contribute to their calculation, according to academics and analysts.
“Many of the ingredients which would make it easy to manipulate Libor and collude are common in other benchmarks,” said Rosa Abrantes-Metz, an economist with consulting firm Global Economics Group and an associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “Regulatory agencies are starting to take a look at those and there is a growing sense they need to change.”
Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest bank, was fined a record 290 million pounds ($450 million) last month for attempting to rig Libor and Euribor, its equivalent in euros, to appear more healthy during the financial crisis and boost earnings before it. At least 12 banks including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) and Deutsche Bank AG are being investigated for manipulating Libor.
Beyond Libor
Regulators and industry groups are now turning their attention to whether other benchmark rates were manipulated in the same way. Sweden’s central bank, the Japanese Bankers Association, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission have all announced probes into how their domestic rates are set.
Libor is determined by a daily poll carried out on behalf of the British Bankers’ Association that asks banks to estimate how much it would cost to borrow from each other for different periods and in different currencies. Three-month dollar Libor was 0.453 percent on July 19.
Derivatives traders at Barclays asked colleagues who inputted the rate each day to amend their submissions to benefit their trading positions. They also contacted traders at other banks to ask them to do the same. Traders at Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Societe Generale SA and Credit Agricole SA are under investigation for interest-rate manipulation, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
With 18 banks on the panel for U.S. dollar Libor and 43 banks for Euribor, only small moves can be achieved by making deliberately high or low submissions. Manipulation becomes easier when fewer banks are contributing, according to Abrantes- Metz at Global Economics.
Collusion Ability
“Collusion typically occurs in markets with just a few players,” Abrantes-Metz said. “All else being equal, the smaller the group, the easier it is to collude.”
Stibor, the Stockholm interbank offered rate, is set by five banks after RBS pulled itself off the panel on April 30. It is calculated by Nasdaq OMX Stockholm every day for eight maturities.
Riksbank, the Swedish central bank, said in its biannual Financial Stability Report published June 1 that market participants were concerned about Stibor, the basis for 40 billion Swedish krona ($5.8 billion) of loans and financial contracts.
Stibor Questions
“Many market participants state in the Riksbank’s latest risk survey that there are problems with the Stibor,” the report stated. ”This refers to incentives for the banks to set the Stibor at fair levels, the opinion that too few banks determine the Stibor and the insufficient transparency of the Stibor and its framework.”
The central bank was unavailable for comment because they are on vacation, said spokeswoman Cecilia Roos Isksson.
Nibor, the Norwegian rate, is set by a panel of six banks. Cibor, the Copenhagen rate, is based on a group of eight lenders.
Tibor, the Tokyo interbank offered rate, is set by the Japanese Bankers Association based on submissions from 16 banks for yen and 15 lenders for euroyen, according to the industry group’s website.
The association yesterday asked the banks to answer questions on how they make their submissions, said spokesman Hisanao Aoki. The reference banks, including lending units of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (8306), JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas SA, must reply by Aug. 10.
Citigroup, UBS
Citigroup Inc. (C) and UBS AG (UBSN) were ordered to suspend some operations in Japan last December after the Financial Services Agency found their employees attempted to influence Tibor to a “favorable level” for derivatives trading. Citigroup was banned from trading tied to Libor and Tibor for two weeks, and UBS received a one-week suspension.
Association officials today met with the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s finance committee, headed by former Morgan Stanley banker Tsutomu Okubo, to explain how Tibor is set.
“Barclays’s fine is enormous and far above the rate of such penalties typically imposed on Japanese financial institutions for wrongdoing,” Okubo said at the meeting. “We must strengthen investors’ trust in Tokyo’s financial market.”
Association Chairman Yasuhiro Sato, who is also chief executive officer of Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (8411), said today that while the process for setting Tibor is sound, he is open to making changes based on the review.
South Korea’s antitrust agency this week expanded a probe to see whether a key money-market rate was kept artificially high. The Fair Trade Commission inspected 10 brokerages and nine banks to determine if there was collusion on certificate of deposit rates, the agency said in an e-mailed statement.
Under Pressure
The country’s 91-day certificate of deposit rate is a benchmark for bank lending and borrowing as well as for interest-rate swaps. Quotes are collected twice a day by the Korea Financial Investment Association from 10 brokerages.
“Korea is a relatively insulated system where the leading banks are influential in the local market and were under pressure to maintain their soundness and their profit margins during the crisis,” said David Marshall, an analyst at research firm CreditSights Inc. in Singapore. Manipulation in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong is less likely, he said.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore said yesterday it will look into how banks are setting “key market interest rate benchmarks” amid similar reviews by regulators in several markets. The Association of Banks in Singapore sets Sibor based on submissions by 12 lenders. RBS said this week it decided to withdraw from the panel following the January announcement of changes to the Edinburgh-based lender’s strategic priorities. It has also withdrawn from the Tokyo and Hong Kong interbank offered rate-setting panels this year.
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, the performance of banks in contributing to set the benchmark Hibor rate is “reviewed regularly,” the Hong Kong Association of Banks said in an e-mailed statement today. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said it hasn’t observed “any anomaly” over the past 20 years and will monitor the industry group’s review, according to an e-mailed statement. Hibor is set daily based on quotations provided by 20 lenders, according to the association’s website.
Barclays Plc (BARC), Britain’s second-biggest lender by assets, said this month it would pull out of the group of 12 banks in the United Arab Emirates whose quotes determine the interbank lending rate in the second biggest Arab economy. Dutch lender Rabobank last month withdrew from the panels that set Libor in Japanese yen, the Canadian dollar, the Swiss franc, the Danish krone and the Swedish krona. It continues to contribute toward Libor in U.S. dollars, euros and pounds.
To contact the reporters on this story: Liam Vaughan in London at [email protected]; Gavin Finch in London at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Edward Evans at [email protected]; Chitra Somayaji at [email protected] | – Looks like Barclays wasn't the only one gaming the Libor system. Investigators are looking into an alleged conspiracy in which traders around the world worked together to rig Libor to boost their personal profits, the Wall Street Journal reports. Several different groups were allegedly working to rig the rate from 2005 to 2011, with the practice spreading as traders switched banks. One cabal alone involved six of the 16 banks that set the daily yen Libor rate. Prosecutors in the US and Europe are close to arresting a number of traders over the scandal, sources tell Reuters—indeed, some of the suspects' lawyers have already been notified of impending arrests. The arrests could take pressure off the banks, making the rate-fixing look more like individual malfeasance than systematic corporate wrongdoing. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that regulators from Switzerland to South Korea to Japan are looking into the possibility that their rates might be vulnerable to foul play. |
Over the years, a $1 million reward and a search in the Tioga Mine Pit failed to yield the stolen slippers, one of several pairs worn by Grand Rapids native Judy Garland in the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz."
Only four pairs of the famous ruby slippers are known to be in existence, the News Tribune reported in 2015. Besides the stolen pair, the other three sets reside in the Smithsonian Institution, a Los Angeles museum and a private collection.
The ruby slippers were nearly at the end of a 10-week loan to the Judy Garland Museum when they were stolen sometime in the overnight hours of Aug. 27-28 in 2005. In the days following the theft, police said the emergency exit door window had been broken. A glass case containing the ruby slippers was broken and the slippers were removed, according to police. The museum had an alarm system, but the private security firm that operated it didn't receive a signal that any doors or windows were opened. It was discovered in the days afterward that the alarm system hadn't been set to alert the security firm that night.
Michael Shaw, the slippers' owner who loaned them to the museum, told the News Tribune in 2005 that the theft was "the worst nightmare for me." Kelsch said at the time that he was "devastated" by the theft.
"The slippers are a major attraction for our museum. It's our hope that the slippers can be recovered immediately," Kelsch said in 2005.
But the theft of the ruby slippers has remained an open police case for 13 years.
Divers from the Itasca County Sheriff's Office took a look around the Tioga Mine Pit in 2015, based on the rumor that the slippers were sealed with a weight in Tupperware and tossed into the pit's water. The ruby slippers weren't found during the dive, but a small duffel bag and a partially deteriorated tin can were found and turned over to the Grand Rapids Police Department.
A $1 million reward was offered on the 10th anniversary of the theft in 2015 by an anonymous Arizona-based fan, and the Grand Rapids Police Department received more than 40 tips about the stolen slippers. The leads came from as far away as Arizona, the East Coast and the United Kingdom and included tips that the slippers were seen at garage sales, given away in radio station contests and stapled on a restaurant wall. But the deadline to collect the reward came and went without any credible leads or the return of the ruby slippers.
The Judy Garland Museum also hired Twin Cities private investigator Rob Feeney, who told the News Tribune in 2015, "We're never going to stop looking for these things. I know the public is never going to stop having an interest in it until they're actually recovered."
The stolen ruby slippers were featured in July on the Discovery Channel show "Expedition Unknown," in which host Josh Gates visited the museum during the winter and conducted his own underwater search for the slippers with quips about northern Minnesota's weather.
"Grand Rapids may be freezing, but this case is anything but cold," Gates concluded. ||||| The thief left behind bits of broken glass and a single red sequin on the floor.
So began a 13-year-old mystery filled with wild tips and offers of lavish rewards in the hunt for two ruby slippers snatched from a museum in Judy Garland’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minn.
Now homecoming heel clicks are ahead: Investigators have found the stolen slippers, bringing closure to an Oz-sized search for the most famous pair of shoes in movie history.
There’s no place like home.
Authorities were announcing Tuesday afternoon that they’ve recovered the shoes. The slippers filched from the Judy Garland Museum were one of several pair donned by Garland in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” and one of only four known surviving pairs from the movie production that launched Garland’s meteoric fame.
North Dakota U.S. Attorney Chris Myers says though the recovery was made, authorities are still looking for who is responsible for the theft. They are still seeking the public's help moving the investigation forward.
The tip that led to the recovery came last summer, and the slippers were found in Minneapolis in August.
Before the crushing theft in August 2005, the size 5 ½ slippers were on loan to the museum from Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw. Shaw told the Star Tribune in 2005 that he bought the slippers and other “Wizard of Oz” collectibles at an MGM auction, calling it “the deal of the millennium.”
Someone broke into the museum on Aug. 28, snatched the slippers and fled. Nothing else was taken.
Museum officials said at the time that an emergency exit had been tampered with.
Over the years, the hunt spurred pleas from surviving film performers and an offer of a $1 million reward on the 10th anniversary of the theft. Divers from the Itasca County Sheriff’s Office have even plunged into a watery quarry in their search for the shoes.
The slippers’ disappearance dealt a body blow to the small museum in Garland’s hometown, about 200 miles north of the Twin Cities. Garland, born Frances Gumm, lived in Grand Rapids until she was 4 ½, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died of a barbiturate overdose in 1969.
The museum bills itself as offering the world’s largest collection of Garland and “Wizard of Oz” collectibles.
Museum officials say many of the thousands of visitors drawn there each year still ask what happened to the sparkling burgundy footwear.
“They’re the symbol of the longing for home — a symbol of a sense of place,” John Kelsch, the museum’s executive director, said in a 2016 interview. “Of any artifact from the movie, they touch that emotion in people.”
At the time of the theft, the slippers had been insured for a slick $1 million.
“France has the ‘Mona Lisa.’ America has ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ” Kelsch told the Star Tribune. “It’s our national masterpiece, so much a part of the American experience.” ||||| Last week, Itasca County Sheriff's Office volunteer divers looked for the ruby slippers that were worn by Grand Rapids native Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz" and were infamously stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids almost a decade ago. The slippers didn't turn up during the four public dives in the Tioga Mine Pit, said Rob Feeney, the museum's volunteer in charge of acquisitions.
But in a practice dive about a week earlier, one of the divers came up with what Feeney coyly described as "something that was of interest."
Actually, two somethings: a pair of containers, one a small duffel bag and the other a partially deteriorated tin can. It was apparent the can had been in the bag, Feeney said. "They had been down there a while."
The dives were staged at the mine pit, Feeney said, because of longstanding rumors that the slippers — stolen in August, 2005 — had been sealed in Tupperware with a weight inside and tossed in the pit.
The thought that the can and the duffel bag might have contained something was enough reason to turn them over to the Grand Rapids Police Department, Feeney said. As of Monday, police were still examining the items, he said.
Divers didn't discover anything that possibly could have been slipper-related during their public dives, Feeney said. But they did come up, unexpectedly, with a rifle. That, too, remains in police hands.
It might not be all that easy to find a pair of slippers in the Tioga Mine Pit. Although a mere blip among Itasca County's numerous bodies of water, it still covers 51 acres and reaches a depth of 225 feet, according to Minnesota Lake Finder.
The search for the iconic slippers isn't over, Feeney said.
"This is really just the beginning," he said. "We're never going to stop doing this until they're found or we know what happened to them."
He noted that the statute of limitations on the burglary soon will have run out, perhaps making the miscreant(s) more willing to speak up.
Meanwhile, two individuals have expressed interest in making offers for a carriage that's on display at the museum. Museum co-founder Jon Miner owns the carriage, which was made for President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and later appeared in about 200 movies, including "The Wizard of Oz." (As if it needs any more creds, it also appeared in John Wayne's last movie, Feeney said.)
Feeney said that Miner is interested in selling the carriage — for the right price — to bolster the endowment for the Children's Discovery Museum, which is attached to the Judy Garland Museum. | – It required more than three clicks of the heel to get these ruby slippers home—it took 13 years. Law enforcement officials announced Tuesday that the shoes stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minn., in late August 2005 have been found—but no thief has been apprehended. The Minneapolis Star Tribune cites North Dakota US Attorney Chris Myers as saying authorities are still looking for the person responsible; no suspects were mentioned. The FBI reports in the summer of 2017, the company that insured the shoes for $1 million was contacted by an individual with a tip; officials are vague on details beyond that but say the slippers were ultimately recovered during a sting operation in Minneapolis. The Smithsonian didn't just confirm the slippers were the genuine article, per the FBI: They realized the stolen pair and the one at the museum are "mismatched twins." The Duluth News Tribune reports the pair in question, one of four known to exist, wasn't to remain at the Judy Garland Museum but were on a 10-week loan from owner Michael Shaw. In the wake of the slippers' disappearance, police learned that an emergency exit door window was broken and that the museum's alarm system was never triggered as it hadn't been set on the evening in question. The oddest turn in the case came in 2015, when divers with the Itasca County Sheriff's Office followed up on a rumor the shoes had been put in Tupperware and tossed into the water that filled the Tioga Mine Pit; divers found only a small duffel bag and an old tin can. |
What would Elliot, dear friend of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, say?
When Elliot scattered a trail of Reese’s Pieces for his alien friend in Stephen Spielberg’s classic movie, he probably wasn’t thinking about the candy’s packaging.
But Columbia, Missouri, resident Robert Bratton was.
Bratton bought several boxes of Reese’s Pieces and Whoppers malted milk balls at a Gerbes grocery story in Columbia for $1 apiece.
He says he was influenced by the size of the opaque boxes, which led him to believe he was buying more candy than he did. Turns out the boxes, as is commonplace in the industry, had a lot of “slack-filled” — or empty — space.
So Bratton did what any candy-loving American would do: He sued the maker of the candies, The Hershey Company. The class-action lawsuit, originally filed in state court last year, was moved by Hershey to federal court.
And in a setback for the company on Wednesday, the judge denied its motion to throw out the case. Although surviving a motion to dismiss is a fairly low bar – Bratton only had to allege facts stating a plausible claim for relief – it means that Bratton may yet get his day in court.
Bratton sued Hershey under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act (MMPA), a 50-year-old law aimed at protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive business practices.
In her 22-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey found that Bratton had “plausibly alleged, at minimum, that the packaging unfairly suggests the boxes contain more product than they actually do, or tends to or has the capacity to mislead consumers or to create a false impression, which is sufficient for purposes of alleging an unlawful practice under the MMPA.”
“The Court cannot conclude as a matter of law and at this stage of the litigation that the packaging is not misleading,” Laughrey wrote.
Laughrey made her finding even as she noted that the boxes specifically list their net weight, the number of pieces per serving (51 in Reese’s Pieces’ case, 18 in Whoppers’ case) and the number of servings per container (“about 3” in Reese’s Pieces’ case, “about 3.5” in Whoppers’ case).
But as Bratton complained, about 29 percent of the Reese’s Pieces boxes and about 41 percent of the Whoppers boxes consisted of “slack-filled,” or empty, space.
That, he said, led him to suffer “an ascertainable loss” because “the actual value of the Products as purchased was less than the value of the Products as represented.”
Hershey joins several other candy makers, including Nestle USA Inc. Mondelez International Inc., that have been sued recently for allegedly under-filling their candy boxes.
Hershey can take some consolation in Tuesday’s ruling. Laughrey deferred a decision on whether Bratton could pursue his claims for unjust enrichment on behalf of others. And unless Laughrey decides to certify the case as a class action, it’s unlikely Bratton will be able to pursue it as an individual case. That’s because his individual damages would likely be so miniscule as to make it economically unfeasible.
Dan Margolies is KCUR’s health editor. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies. ||||| Sure, it’s vaguely annoying that boxes of candy aren’t full all the way to the top, but most people don’t file federal class actions over a lack of peanut butter candies. A man in Missouri has done exactly that, claiming that boxes of Reese’s Pieces and Whoppers that he purchased were dramatically under-filled.
The case is about “slack fill,” which is the empty space in a package. Sometimes this serves a purpose, like the extra air in a bag of cookies or chips that protects the contents. Sometimes it’s produced when the contents of a package settle during shipment.
READ MORE: When Does The Extra Space In Your Potato Chip Bag Go From Annoying To Deceptive?
“Consumers are well aware of the fact that substantially all commercial packaging contains some empty space,” Hershey’s attorneys argued.
Yes, that’s true, but how much empty space is reasonable to protect the product inside without wasting resources on extra packaging?
In his complaint [PDF], the plaintiff accuses Hershey of under-filling the Reese’s box by around 29%, and the Whoppers box by 41% to mislead shoppers and make them believe that the box is more full than it is.
How under-filled is that? The complaint includes handy visual aids.
The extra space isn’t necessary to protect the candy, since both products are also sold in flimsy plastic bags. Why are the boxes so under-filled?
Hershey, of course, doesn’t answer that question. The company sees nothing wrong with this packaging, because the number of candies and the weight are printed right on the outside, and shoppers can pick the box up and feel its weight.
“It is not possible to view the product packaging without also seeing the net weight and quantity disclosures,” the company’s motion to dismiss the case [PDF] argues.
Besides, Hershey argues, an under-filled box of candies rattles. “Any consumer would recognize immediately upon picking up a box of Reese’s Pieces or Whoppers that its contents rattle noticeably and audibly with every movement,” the company notes.
Hershey’s arguments did not persuade the judge, who noted in her opinion [PDF] that cases cited by Hershey’s attorneys did not apply in the state of Missouri, and that such cases often depend on “reasonableness” and what decision the typical shopper would make.
The case was not dismissed. Perhaps Hershey will eventually have to explain what purpose that empty space in the box serves.
(via KCUR) ||||| Enlarge A Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar is arranged among Reese's Pieces, also a Hershey Co.… more
A Columbia man had a small win Wednesday, when a federal judge denied The Hershey Co.'s motion to throw out his case, KCUR reports.
At issue? Empty space. When Robert Bratton purchased boxes of Reese's Pieces and Whoppers candies from a Columbia grocery store, he was surprised by the amount of empty space when he opened the boxes. The size of the packaging made him think he was getting more product.
Enlarge A Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar is arranged among Reese's Pieces, also a Hershey Co.… more
In industry speak, the empty space is known as "slack-filled," and according to his suit, the Reese's Pieces packing was comprised of 29 percent empty space, while the Whoppers packaging had 41 percent empty space.
Bratton originally filed the case in state court, but it has since moved to federal court. His case is tied to a state law created to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive business practices. He's hoping to gain class-action status, but a federal judge has deferred that decision.
Leslie covers entrepreneurs and technology, retail, and marketing. | – Hell hath no fury like a sweet tooth scorned. Consumerist reports a Missouri man disappointed with the amount of candy in his boxes of Reese's Pieces and Whoppers is suing Hershey's. According to KCUR, Robert Bratton bought a number of boxes of each candy at a grocery store in Columbia for $1 each. But he says he would have been less likely to spend that money if he knew how under-filled the boxes would be. Bratton's lawsuit claims the boxes of Reese's Pieces were under-filled by about 29% and the boxes of Whoppers by about 41%. His lawsuit argues shoppers are being misled. But Hershey's counters that customers are "well aware" of the concept of "slack fill," by which packages contain some empty space either due to settling or to protect their contents. Besides, the company argues, the total weight and number of candies is printed on each box. Finally, Hershey's says the empty space shouldn't be a surprise to customers as the boxes rattle when picked up. A judge denied Hershey's motion to dismiss the case this week but also deferred on Bratton's desire to turn it into a class-action suit, the Kansas City Business Journal reports. It remains to be seen how much slack fill is too much slack fill, legally speaking, when it comes to our favorite candies. (In related news: Your favorite Hershey's treats may be shrinking soon.) |
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/ Updated By Andrew Blankstein, Robert Dean and Tracy Connor
The so-called secret witness in the Robert Durst case was revealed Wednesday to be an advertising executive who was introduced to him through a mutual friend — the woman Durst is accused of murdering.
Nick Chavin, 72, took the witness stand at a pretrial hearing and testified that he had met "Bobby" more than three decades ago through his pal, writer Susan Berman, and became such good friends that Durst was the co-best man at his wedding.
Durst, 73, a scion of a massive real estate empire, is charged with murdering Berman in Los Angeles in 2000. Prosecutors claim that he was worried that she would implicate him in the death of his first wife, Kathie, who vanished in 1982. Durst denies killing either woman.
Chavin — who told the New York Times in 2001 that "Bobby didn't kill Kathie" — testified Wednesday that Kathie told him that she was physically afraid of her husband.
Durst, meanwhile, described Kathie as "impossible," Chavin testified.
"It was always a strange relationship," he said, adding that Durst said he had an open marriage and would go to bars with Chavin hoping to meet women.
Related: Durst Hearing Focuses on Mystery of 1982 Phone Call
Chavin also testified about Durst's close relationship with Berman, saying there was nothing she would not have done for him.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John Lewin asked Chavin whether he ever discussed with Berman whether Durst might have been involved in his wife's disappearance, but the defense objected to the question.
Chavin, who arrived in court with two armed security guards, is back on the stand Thursday for what's expected to be the final day of the hearing. Prosecutors requested the hearing to get early testimony from several witnesses who they said were in danger of falling ill or dying or were scared that Durst could harm them — even though he is serving a seven-year sentence on a gun possession charge.
Chavin's identity was not revealed until he took the stand.
Earlier, the judge heard from a woman who worked for Chavin, met Durst through him in 2002 and became what she called his "closest friend."
Susan Giordano testified that she visited Durst in Texas while he was jailed for the 2001 death and dismemberment of his elderly neighbor, Morris Black.
She also said that, over time, Durst gave her $350,000 in gifts and loans — of which she repaid $2,000 — and that at one point she discussed with Durst and his lawyers the possibility of getting money from him for the rest of her life.
She said that although she and Durst had a platonic relationship, they talked about having a "love nest," and she said she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
Related: The Millionaire Drifter Who Can't Run From His Past
Giordano was called to the stand because she had stored boxes full of Durst's personal papers — and allowed producers of the HBO program "The Jinx" to go through them before they were seized by police in 2015.
The defense claims that the contents of the boxes were privileged and should not be used as evidence at Durst's trial, but prosecutors contend that Durst waived that privilege when he gave "The Jinx" producers access.
"The Jinx" examined Durst's ties to his wife's disappearance and Berman's death, as well as the 2001 death and dismemberment of Black. The series ended with Durst blurting out on a hot microphone that he "killed them all." ||||| US real estate heir makes what appears to be veiled confession in TV documentary screened hours after he was charged with murder
Robert Durst of The Jinx: 'What did I do? Killed them all, of course'
Robert Durst, the wealthy heir to a New York real estate fortune whose stranger-than-fiction involvement in three mysterious deaths has baffled prosecutors and police investigators across the US for decades, made a veiled confession in a documentary aired on Sunday night that he “killed them all”.
The startling admission, made in a conversation with himself in a bathroom while his interview microphone was still switched on, was made public just hours after new evidence unearthed by the documentary-makers in one of the unsolved cases caused Durst to be arrested in New Orleans and charged with first-degree murder.
Susan Berman and The Jinx: did the HBO series help solve a 15-year-old murder? Read more
Durst, 71, is a suspect in the 1982 disappearance of his wife Kathie, which prosecutors in New York and California believe may be linked to the murder of one of his oldest friends, Susan Berman, a Las Vegas gangster’s daughter who was shot in her Los Angeles home in 2000. He was also tried and acquitted of a murder in Galveston, Texas in 2003, successfully arguing that the killing was in self-defence.
The makers of the documentary series, called The Jinx, found a letter written by Durst to Berman which bore a close resemblance to an anonymous note sent by Berman’s killer to the Beverly Hills police on the day of her murder. Both were written in similar block letters, and the word Beverly was misspelled Beverley in both cases.
Confronted by the film-makers, Durst initially betrayed little emotion or surprise. “The writing looks similar and the spelling is the same so I can see the conclusion the police would draw,” he said in the interview.
A little later, he backtracked slightly, saying the only similarity he saw was in the misspelling of Beverly. “Block letters are block letters. How else do you write block letters other than that?” he asked.
However, when he went to the bathroom, almost certainly unaware he could be overheard, he said to himself: “There it is. You’re caught.” It sounded at this point as if he was weeping. Moments later, after a retching sound, he added: “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”
Durst, 71, was picked up by the FBI and Louisiana state police in a hotel in New Orleans’s French Quarter and booked on Saturday night at the request of the Los Angeles Police Department. It was not clear how far in advance, if at all, the authorities were shown the final episode.
Durst was arraigned on Sunday morning and was expected to be extradited to California. He has a home in Houston – about four hours’ drive from New Orleans – which has been under surveillance since the documentary series started last month, according to a former prosecutor who has been after him for years.
Shortly after Durst’s arraignment, his younger brother, Douglas, issued a statement on behalf of the family corporation in which he said the family hoped Robert Durst would “finally be held accountable for all he has done”.
It is not known if Durst went to New Orleans in an attempt to run from the law, as he has done in the past. His booking photograph appeared to show him in an orange prison jumpsuit, and he is being held without bond – meaning he will remain in custody either until trial or until a judge releases him or until prosecutors decide to drop the charges.
Durst has long been a leading suspect in the Berman killing, because Berman had potentially damaging knowledge about the disappearance of Durst’s wife Kathie, also believed murdered, from the couple’s suburban New York home in 1982.
The original investigation fizzled, however, because the police could not place Durst in Los Angeles – though they knew he was in California – and because close study of the bullet used in the killing, and of a note written by the killer, could not be definitively linked to him.
Investigators were spurred to reopen the Berman case because of numerous new revelations in The Jinx.
Durst, who has a history of taking risks and believing he is in some way untouchable, did not help himself by consenting to sit for 25 hours of interviews for the series, against the advice of at least two teams of lawyers.
In the series, a compulsively watchable Durst blinked furiously and shuddered on many occasions when answering uncomfortable questions. When it was pointed out that he travelled out west exactly at the time Berman was murdered, he smirked visibly and said: “ California is a big state.”
Durst agreed to the interviews because he was happy to speak for himself after years of sensationalist media coverage giving a less than charitable account of his extraordinary brushes with the law and his Houdini-like ability to wriggle out of situations that would have condemned anyone without his imperturbable temperament or his unlimited access to elite criminal defense lawyers.
Most startlingly, he was acquitted of a murder in Galveston, Texas, which took place less than a year after Berman’s death, even though he admitted that he dismembered the body and dumped the pieces in garbage bags in Galveston Bay.
Durst was living in Galveston disguised as a mute woman – because of his fears of prosecution in New York or Los Angeles or both – and the victim was a neighbour living in the same house. After his arrest, he skipped bail and shaved his head and eyebrows but was rearrested days later after being caught shoplifting a chicken sandwich in rural Pennsylvania . He had $38,000 in cash on him at the time.
Durst’s lawyers put him on the stand, an unusual move in a high-profile murder case, and he managed to convince the jury that he may have killed in self-defence. His lawyers then convinced the jury that the dismemberment should not be taken into consideration in their verdict.
In the documentary, Durst could not pull off the same high-wire act. He admitted on camera that he lied to investigators in 1982 about his movements on the night of his wife’s disappearance. He sounded less than convincing when it was put to him that old mafia connections of Susan Berman’s may have helped him bury his wife’s body in the New Jersey pine barrens. And he acknowledged – even before the final episode – that the anonymous note could only have been written by the killer.
“I think that they clearly have enough now. California definitely does,” Jeanine Pirro, a former district attorney from Westchester County , New York , who reopened the Kathie Durst case in 2000, told Bloomberg News on Friday. “My instincts tell me that everybody realises that there appears to be sufficient evidence to go before a grand jury in California , and Robert Durst knows it.” ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
/ Updated By Andrew Blankstein, Hannah Rappleye and Tracy Connor
Los Angeles prosecutors have released a transcript of a 2015 interrogation of millionaire murder suspect Robert Durst in which he says he can't provide details about the disappearance of his first wife and the murder of a close friend because it would amount to "pleading guilty."
Durst, 73, then mused aloud about what would be in it for him to give information about the two women to investigators.
"As I see it, all you could for me is tell me that 'this is the best prison in California and that I will recommend you go there," the real-estate heir said, according to the transcript.
Real estate heir Robert Durst, right, sits with his Attorney Dick De Guerin during a long-awaited appearance in a courtroom in Los Angeles on Monday, Nov. 7, 2016. Kevork Djansezian / Pool Photo via AP
The conversation with Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John Lewin took place shortly after Durst was arrested in New Orleans on a warrant out of Los Angeles.
Authorities in LA have since charged him with the 2000 murder of confidante Susan Berman, allegedly killed because she knew too much about the 1982 vanishing of Kathie Durst, who is presumed dead.
Durst danced around questions about both women in the interview, sometimes saying he was going to "stay away" from talking about certain aspects, according to the transcript.
"You'd like some details from me about if I knew where Kathie's body is," Durst said to the prosecutor at one point. "And about what happened with Susan."
When Lewin said that's what he wanted, Durst said, "If I tell you those things, I'm pleading guilty."
Durst has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers said the interview with their client, outside the presence of his attorneys, was an "improper interrogation."
The transcript, which was released as part of a motion ahead of a hearing next Wednesday, also contained the following revelations:
• Durst says he was on methamphetamines when he filmed the HBO documentary series "The Jinx," which examined his ties to Kathie Durst's disappearance, Berman's slaying and the 2003 dismemberment of a neighbor in Texas. The series ended with Durst muttering into a hot mic that he "killed them all."
"The whole time I was on meth," Durst told the prosecutor, according to the transcript. "I think the reason I did it had to be because I was swooped, speeding." He also said that he smoked pot every day for as long as he could remember.
• Durst said he only had five years left to live after losing his esophagus to cancer and struggling with hydrocephalous, or fluid on the brain.
"So there's not much I could agree with anybody that somebody could offer me, unless they could offer me more life," he said when Lewin asked him about his hopes for the future.
• Durst said he didn't flee right after "The Jinx" wrapped, when he was confronted with a damning piece of newly unearthed evidence, because of "inertia."
Durst, who was allegedly on his way to Cuba when he was caught in New Orleans, also said that he really doesn't like life on the run.
"Being a fugitive was not something I did well," he said. "I was the worst fugitive the world has ever met."
• Durst seemed unsure of whether he has Asperger’s syndrome, which is on the spectrum of autism disorders, as his lawyers have claimed.
“I never thought that amounted to anything,” he told Lewin. But then he added, “The thing with Asperger’s syndrome is intelligent people don’t get along or don’t enjoy communicating with other people. And that is certainly me.”
Durst denies killing Berman. He has not been charged in connection with Kathie Durst's apparent death but denies killing her in the interview with Lewin.
"If you had killed Susan, would you tell me?" Lewin asked him.
"No," Durst said.
Durst was acquitted of the murder of Texas neighbor Morris Black after he argued he killed him in self-defense and dismembered his body in a panic. He is currently serving a seven-year sentence for gun possession. | – The bizarre story of Robert Durst took a new turn this week as the much-talked-about "secret witness" emerged with details on Durst's first marriage. Per NBC News, 72-year-old Nick Chavin showed up at the real estate heir's pretrial hearing for his murder case Wednesday—through a back door for security reasons, CBS News reports—saying he was once extremely close to the man he calls "Bobby" and that they were introduced through writer Susan Berman, the woman Durst is accused of killing. Chavin, who said he considered Durst one of his best friends, shed some light on Durst's marriage to Kathie Durst, who disappeared in 1982 (and whom Durst is also suspected of killing). Prosecutors think Berman was murdered because Durst feared she'd link him to Kathie's death. Chavin, who told the New York Times in 2001 that Durst hadn't killed Kathie, offered testimony in a somewhat different tone Wednesday, noting Kathie had confided in him she feared Durst (though she'd never said Durst had hurt her) and that her husband was "impossible," the Los Angeles Times reports. Chavin described the Dursts' marriage as "strange," per NBC, noting Durst told him it was an open relationship and would go with Chavin to clubs looking to hook up. CBS notes Chavin's testimony was part of a "rare proceeding" in which testimony is gathered from older witnesses who might not live till the trial, as well as witnesses who fear for their safety. A woman named Susan Giordano also testified, per NBC, claiming she'd become Durst's "closest friend" after meeting in 2002 and had wanted to spend her life with him. (Durst says he was on meth during The Jinx filming.) |
Three More Women Come Forward to Accuse Bill Cosby of Sexual Assault
Three more women have publicly come forward with accusations that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them in the 1970s and '80s. The three women, including an actress who appeared on The Cosby Show and the former wife of a vice president at the William Morris Agency, joined the more than 40 women who allege they were drugged, sexually assaulted or sexually harassed by the comedian.At a press conference Wednesday, civil rights attorney Gloria Allred, who is now representing more than 21 accusers, said the three women are speaking out now to show their support for other accusers who have been criticized by Cosby's attorneys "There is no statute of limitations on free speech," says Allred. "A person who alleges that she or he is a victim can speak out at any time."Cosby has consistently denied the allegations of sexual assault. His lawyer, Marty Singer, previously said that the claims "about alleged decades-old events are becoming increasingly ridiculous." Singer did not immediately comment on the new allegations.At the press conference Wednesday, Colleen Hughes said she was a young stewardess with American Airlines in the early '70s when she allegedly met Cosby on a flight to Los Angeles. Hughes claimed Cosby flirted with her the entire flight and invited her to lunch in Beverly Hills. She agreed to go, but only with another stewardess. Cosby allegedly had a car and driver waiting for them at the airport but the other stewardess never showed up. Hughes claimed she drove with Cosby to the Fairmont Hotel and he allegedly watched television in her room while she got ready for lunch.When she came out of the bathroom fully dressed, she said Cosby had allegedly ordered a bottle of champagne and was drinking it out of her Gucci pump. She claimed he raised the shoe towards her, and said, "A princess should always drink champagne out of a glass slipper."Hughes said they started watching television and he allegedly tried to hold her hand. The last thing she remembered, she claimed, was waking up around 5:15 p.m. Her clothes were all over the room and she "felt semen on the small of my back and all over me," she claimed."It was disgusting," she said. "Bill obviously did not use a condom and there was no lunch and Bill was nowhere to be seen. I was confused and ashamed and never told anyone about what happened to me."Linda Ridgeway Whitedeer told reporters that at the time of her alleged assault she was the recently divorced wife of Fred Apollo, a vice president and department head of live TV for the William Morris Agency, and who worked closely with the comedian. The former actress, who starred in 1972's The Mechanic with Charles Bronson, claimed she met Cosby on a movie set around 1971. She claimed Cosby told her she was there to be interviewed and then allegedly lured her into the director's office.Once inside, Cosby exposed himself, grabbed her head and shoved his penis in her mouth, Whitedeer alleged."His attack was fast with surgical precision and surprise on his side," she claimed. "When Cosby was done there was a horrible mess of semen all over my face, my clothes and in my hair."Whitedeer said she wanted to go straight to William Morris Agency but changed her mind because she didn't want to embarrass her ex-husband. "An actress is like a tennis player," she said at the press conference. "Her integrity and confidence are everything. For me, Bill Cosby was a career-killer."The third alleged victim, Eden Tiri, said she was a 22-year-old actress when she was given a part playing a cop on The Cosby Show in 1989. While working on the set in front of hundreds of people, she alleged she was led off set to Cosby's dressing room twice but he wasn't there. The third time, Cosby was allegedly waiting for her. Inside the dressing room, she alleged Cosby wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear, "See that's all we were going to do, make love. This is making love. He turned me around, hugged me and I left without saying a word."On July 29, a California judge ordered the comedian to give a deposition in the civil suit filed by Allred's client Judy Huth. The deposition is scheduled for Oct. 9."My hope for that deposition is that we will ask questions and he should provide answers," said Allred. "We have a great deal of latitude. We are looking forward to his answers. We are entitled to answers."Huth claimed that Cosby, 78, molested her inside the Playboy Mansion when she was just 15 years old. She is just one of the nearly 50 women who've accused Cosby of some form of sexual abuse.The deposition will be the first time Cosby has spoken about the sexual assault allegations against him since a separate case in 2005. Portions of that deposition were unsealed earlier last month; in the deposition, Cosby admitted he gave Quaaludes to a woman and then had sex with her. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
A 55-year-old woman sued comedian Bill Cosby on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress for allegedly molesting her in a bedroom at the Playboy Mansion when she was 15 years old.
According to the complaint, Judy Huth and a friend, who was 16 at the time, met Cosby at an outdoor film set at Lacy Park in Los Angeles County in 1974 and accepted an invitation to socialize with him at a tennis club the following week. When they got together, the lawsuit alleges, they played billiards and Cosby served them alcoholic beverages.
"Under the terms of Cosby's game, plaintiff was required to consume a beer every time Cosby won a game," the suit alleges. After the two girls consumed "multiple alcoholic beverages," Cosby allegedly told them he had a surprise for them "and led them to another house which turned out to be the Playboy Mansion."
He told the girls they should say they were 19 if they were asked, according to the lawsuit.
While at the mansion, Huth said she needed to use the bathroom. Cosby, who was 37 at the time, allegedly showed her to a bathroom inside a bedroom suite near the mansion’s game room.
“When Plaintiff emerged from the bathroom, she found COSBY sitting on the bed,” the suit states. “He asked her to sit beside him. He then proceeded to sexually molest her by attempting to put his hand down her pants, and then taking her hand in his hand and performing a sex act on himself without her consent.”
Huth stated in the complaint that the "traumatic incident" left her psychologically and emotionally scarred, but only recently did she realize why she was so damaged. She said she "suffered damages that are substantial and continuing."
In recent weeks, 20 other women have come forward to accuse Cosby of sexual assault — charges which began to surface a decade ago when the former director of operations for Temple's women's basketball team sued him for drugging her and assaulting her in 2004.
The comedian has not been criminally charged and many of the claims are so old, they are barred by statutes of limitations.
Huth's lawsuit, however, contends that she became aware of the serious effect the abuse had on her within the past three years. California law allows victims of sex abuse when they were minors to bring a claim after adulthood if they discover later in life that they suffered psychological injuries as a result of the abuse.
An attorney for Cosby had no immediate comment when contacted by NBC News. He has denounced previous allegations as unfounded. A representative for Playboy did not return requests for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | – Bill Cosby has three new accusers to add to the growing list of more than 40. In a Wednesday news conference with lawyer Gloria Allred, Sharon Van Ert said Cosby walked her to her car after she left a California jazz club in 1976, reports Reuters. She says she blacked out and suspects Cosby drugged and assaulted her, then stole her underwear. Pamela Abeyta alleges she was drugged while out with Cosby in 1975. She says she woke up in his bed and remembers seeing "naked people" nearby, per the Los Angeles Times. Lisa Christie, an extra on The Cosby Show and former Mrs. America, met Cosby at 18. Two years later, she says he tried to coerce her into sex, saying, "If you want to make it in this business, you have to sleep with me." She says she thought of Cosby as a "father figure" and now believes he "waited" for her because she was a virgin, per CNN. "Shame on you, Mr. Father Figure of America," she says. "After 35 years of living with these shameful memories in secret, I was finally encouraged by all the other women who have recently told their stories," says Van Ert, though the statute of limitations means there can be no criminal legal action. Cosby has been ordered to give an Oct. 9 deposition in a civil suit brought by Allred client Judy Huth, who accuses the comedian of sexually abusing her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974. Before that date, a court will decide whether to approve Cosby's request for a protective order limiting the public release of the deposition, which Allred opposes. "There should be transparency," Allred says. "Mr. Cosby has nobody to blame but himself for his choices and his actions." |
Lehigh University has booted a sorority from its campus for hosting a scavenger hunt that involved drugs, alcohol and sexual activity, school officials said.
The sorority, Alpha Chi Omega, lost its organizational status as of March 5, according to the Lehigh Greek Community blog which is published by the university. The group will remain banned from campus until May 2020. During that time, the sorority may not use the Lehigh University name or any university facilities, according to the post.
The ban came after Alpha Chi Omega hosted a scavenger hunt in December called the Road Rally. Participants were given a list of tasks that involved “the use of drugs and alcohol, sexual activity and other activities that violate Lehigh University policy,” according to the post.
On Dec. 12, the chapter was placed on interim suspension and ordered to cease and desist all activities until a committee could complete an investigation, the post states. During that probe, the chapter turned over a complete scavenger hunt list as well as lists of members’ completed tasks.
At a March 5 hearing, Alpha Chi Omega was found to be responsible for hazing and other offenses after a university committee found the entire chapter was aware of the event and it was endorsed by chapter leadership.
The sorority’s National Council in Indianapolis, Ind., announced Monday that, after an internal investigation, it has expelled a large number of its Lehigh members for their “disturbing” actions.
“Following our initial review, we immediately rescinded the membership of nearly one-third of the members of the chapter – those women who were most directly involved with this incident,” said Erin K. Witt, who provided the statement from the national Alpha Chi Omega organization.
“Furthermore, we continued to cooperate fully with Lehigh’s investigation. Taking into account additional information we have received, and in parallel with the continued proceedings of the university judicial process, the National Council will make a final decision soon about the future of this chapter on Lehigh’s campus.”
The Lehigh committee called the scavenger hunt “reprehensible” and “morally questionable.” The acts outlined in the scavenger hunt may not have been required to belong to the sorority, but they “are clearly considered a rite of passage and a consistent part of membership in AXO,” the committee said.
“This event did not only take place this year, but there is credible information that this event has been going on for years,” the committee said. “The panel is deeply concerned about the escalated nature of the content of this year’s list, and we are unconvinced that this escalation wouldn’t continue.”
“This type of behavior is simply unacceptable considering the current climate on college campuses,” the committee added.
Alpha Chi Omega may appeal the decision.
[email protected]
Twitter @emilyopilo
610-820-6522 ||||| Lehigh University has kicked a sorority off its campus after it organized a scavenger hunt a university disciplinary panel called 'a significant and reprehensible event.'
Alpha Chi Omega's Theta Chi chapter has lost its Lehigh campus recognition for two years, starting March 5 of this year until May 31, 2020.
The sorority, which can appeal the finding, must vacate its sorority house once the disciplinary process resolves.
The sorority held a scavenger hunt (road rally) on Dec. 8, which "involved the use of drugs and alcohol, sexual activity, and other activities that violate Lehigh University policy," according to the university's Lehigh Greeks blogs.
The chapter was placed on interim university suspension on Dec. 12 and its national headquarters also directed it to "cease and desist all activities," according to the posting.
Lehigh's Title IX Coordinator Karen Salvemini launched an investigation that culminated in a March 5 disciplinary hearing where the sorority was found responsible of hazing and related offenses.
Alpha Chi Omega cooperated with the investigation, turning over the scavenger hunt list and documented examples of member's completed tasks, according to Lehigh. But the disciplinary panel found the sorority had violated many university rules.
While members may have willingly joined in the hunt, that does not stop it from being considered hazing under Lehigh's Code of Conduct, the university found.
"AXO created a situation that occurred on and off campus involving morally questionable quests such as a scavenger hunt, treasure hunts, etc.," the university writes on the blog. "The acts described may not have been required for affiliation into the organization, but are clearly considered a rite of passage and a consistent part of membership in AXO."
By the time the sorority can resume operations at Lehigh, all of the current members, who are aware of the tradition, will have graduated, which was intentional, the university notes.
"This incident was a significant, reprehensible event that the entire chapter was aware of and leadership endorsed. This event did not only take place this year, but there is credible information that this event has been going on for years," the university found. "The panel is deeply concerned about the escalated nature of the content of this year's list and we are unconvinced that this escalation wouldn't continue."
The university found that the sorority's current track record did not lead the panel to have confidence in the chapter's ability to act in a manner that shows care and concern for the health and safety of its members.
"This type of behavior is simply unacceptable considering the current climate on college campuses," the university found.
The sorority can apply to the university's Dean of Student Offices in 2020 to start the recognition process again.
The national organization conducted its own on-campus investigation in December that resulted in probationary terms for the chapter and individual punishments.
Sara K. Satullo may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. ||||| HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A fraternity linked to a secret Facebook page on which photos of nude and semi-nude women were posted was shut down by Penn State for at least three years on Tuesday after the university's Interfraternity Council recommended a milder punishment.
Penn State said its investigation found some Kappa Delta Rho members had engaged in sexual harassment, hazing that included boxing matches and a "persistent climate of humiliation for several females."
The university's vice president for student affairs, Damon Sims, said not all frat members were equally culpable.
"Even so, the sum of the organizational misbehaviors is far more than the university can tolerate from a student organization that seeks its imprimatur," Sims said.
The university canceled the fraternity's recognition as a campus organization as of Tuesday, a status that will remain until May 2018.
A phone message left at the State College chapter house wasn't returned. An email sent to chapter president Tom Friel's university account also wasn't returned. A phone number for the president of the chapter's alumni corporation rang several times before the line went dead.
Penn State said it found members had forced pledges to run errands, clean the house, participate in boxing matches and maintain a painful posture similar to a pushup position, called a plank, with bottle caps under their elbows. Pledges also produced stories with pornographic images and what was described as a sex position of the day. The university said underage drinking and drug sales and use also were problems.
Two women, the university said, were subject to persistent harassment.
"The investigative report makes clear that some members of the KDR chapter promoted a culture of harassing behavior and degradation of women," Sims said.
Sims told the Interfraternity Council's standards vice presidents in a letter Tuesday the university was overriding its recommendation Kappa Delta Rho remain active but engage in a process of change and heightened accountability.
In a May 13 letter to Kappa Delta Rho's chapter president, two Interfraternity Council standards vice presidents said Penn State's investigative report, which the university declined to make public, said members of the chapter were aware of and used two private Facebook pages "where highly inappropriate photographs and messages were posted."
The letter also said members "collectively" knew of hazing, drug use and students being "degraded in flyers left in public view throughout the chapter house."
Earlier Tuesday, the fraternity's national executive director said the university's report didn't allege any member of the chapter had committed sexual assault. The executive director, Joseph Rosenberg, didn't respond to messages seeking comment.
The matter became public after State College police said in a search warrant they were looking into a Facebook page where, a former member told them, members shared photos of drug sales, hazing and unsuspecting victims, some of whom appeared to be asleep or passed out. The department hasn't released the results of its investigation.
The fraternity's national leadership can ask Penn State to recolonize the chapter after three years, a university spokeswoman said. That would trigger a review, and the university could set conditions on starting it back up, she said. | – A "reprehensible" sorority scavenger hunt that "involved the use of drugs and alcohol, sexual activity, and other activities that violate Lehigh University policy" counts as hazing even if participants took part willingly, the university has decided. The Alpha Chi Omega has lost its status and been booted off the Pennsylvania campus until May 2020 at the earliest after being found responsible for hazing and other offenses, reports the Morning Call. In a blog post, the university says the dubious acts involved in December's "Road Rally" scavenger hunt may not have been "required for affiliation into the organization, but are clearly considered a rite of passage and a consistent part of membership." Alpha Chi Omega will be ordered to vacate its sorority house and the university says that by the time the sorority can resume operations on campus, all the current members will have graduated, breaking a link with the tradition, Lehigh Valley Live reports. "This incident was a significant, reprehensible event that the entire chapter was aware of and leadership endorsed," says the university blog post, which accuses sorority leadership of creating "a situation that occurred on and off campus involving morally questionable quests." Alpha Chi Omega, which cooperated with the investigation by turning over scavenger hunt lists, will be allowed to appeal the decision. |
Treatments
Ancient Viruses Lurk In Frozen Caribou Poo
i itoggle caption Courtesy of Brian Moorman Courtesy of Brian Moorman
A careful examination of frozen caribou poop has turned up two never-before-seen viruses.
The viruses are hundreds of years old: One of them probably infected plants the caribous ate. The other may have infected insects that buzzed around the animals.
The findings prove viruses can survive for surprisingly long periods of time in a cold environment, according to Eric Delwart, a researcher at Blood Systems Research Institute in San Francisco.
"The DNA of viruses is preserved extremely well under cold conditions," he says.
Delwart's day job at Blood Systems is to find new viruses that could contaminate the blood supply. But he enjoys looking in odd places too. He got interested in ice cores from high mountain regions, after reading about all the interesting old things the ice contained.
"Things like old shoes and arrowheads," he says, "and then I realized this is nature's freezer, which should also contain organic remains."
Delwart had one particular type of organic remains in mind: caribou poop. Just about everything an animal eats can be infected with a virus. And that makes animals, including humans, virus vacuums that suck up every virus in their path.
"I mean we're constantly shoving viruses down our throat and if you look at poo samples from humans and from animals you will find a lot of viruses," he says.
Caribous hang out on ice, so these pristine ice cores are actually full of poo. And as scientists go through layer after layer of ice, the poo gets older and older.
Delwart examined poop from northern Canada that was 700 years old. The result, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the discovery of these two viruses.
The DNA was so well-preserved that Delwart's collaborators could even reconstitute one virus and use it to infect a plant in the lab.
As far as Delwart can tell, these viruses aren't dangerous, which is good. As the North warms and ice melts, more caribou poo infected with ancient viruses will be finding its way into the modern ecosystem. ||||| Julia Bartoli & Chantal Abergel; Information Génomique et Structurale, CNRS-AMU
In what seems like a plot straight out of a low-budget science-fiction film, scientists have revived a giant virus that was buried in Siberian ice for 30,000 years — and it is still infectious. Its targets, fortunately, are amoebae, but the researchers suggest that as Earth's ice melts, this could trigger the return of other ancient viruses, with potential risks for human health.
“This guy is 150 times less compacted than any bacteriophage. We don’t understand anything anymore!”
The newly thawed virus is the biggest one ever found. At 1.5 micrometres long, it is comparable in size to a small bacterium. Evolutionary biologists Jean-Michel Claverie and Chantal Abergel, the husband-and-wife team at Aix-Marseille University in France who led the work, named it Pithovirus sibericum, inspired by the Greek word 'pithos' for the large container used by the ancient Greeks to store wine and food. “We’re French, so we had to put wine in the story,” says Claverie. The results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1.
Claverie and Abergel have helped to discover other so-called giant viruses — including the first, called Mimivirus, in 20032, and two others, known as Pandoraviruses, last year3 (see 'Giant viruses open Pandora's box'). “Once again, this group has opened our eyes to the enormous diversity that exists in giant viruses,” says Curtis Suttle, a virologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, who was not involved in the work.
Two years ago, Claverie and Abergel's team learned that scientists in Russia had resurrected an ancient plant from fruits buried in 30,000-year-old Siberian permafrost4. “If it was possible to revive a plant, I wondered if it was possible to revive a virus,” says Claverie. Using permafrost samples provided by the Russian team, they fished for giant viruses by using amoebae — the typical targets of these pathogens — as bait. The amoebae started dying, and the team found giant-virus particles inside them.
Under a microscope, Pithovirus appears as a thick-walled oval with an opening at one end, much like the Pandoraviruses. But despite their similar shapes, Abergel notes that “they are totally different viruses”.
Julia Bartoli & Chantal Abergel; Information Génomique et Structurale, CNRS-AMU
Surprising properties
Pithovirus has a ‘cork’ with a honeycomb structure capping its opening (see electron-microscope image). It copies itself by building replication ‘factories’ in its host’s cytoplasm, rather than by taking over the nucleus, as most viruses do. Only one-third of its proteins bear any similarity to those of other viruses. And, to the team’s surprise, its genome is much smaller than those of the Pandoraviruses, despite its larger size.
“That huge particle is basically empty,” says Claverie. “We thought it was a property of viruses that they pack DNA extremely tightly into the smallest particle possible, but this guy is 150 times less compacted than any bacteriophage [viruses that infect bacteria]. We don’t understand anything anymore!”
Although giant viruses almost always target amoebae, Christelle Desnues, a virologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Marseilles, last year discovered5 signs that another giant virus, Marseillevirus, had infected an 11-month-old boy. He had been hospitalized with inflamed lymph nodes, and Desnues's team discovered traces of Marseillevirus DNA in his blood, and the virus itself in the a node. “It is clear that giant viruses cannot be seen as stand-alone freaks of nature,” she says. “They constitute an integral part of the virosphere with implications in diversity, evolution and even human health.”
Claverie and Abergel are concerned that rising global temperatures, along with mining and drilling operations in the Arctic, could thaw out many more ancient viruses that are still infectious and that could conceivably pose a threat to human health.
But Suttle points out that people already inhale thousands of viruses every day, and swallow billions whenever they swim in the sea. The idea that melting ice would release harmful viruses, and that those viruses would circulate extensively enough to affect human health, “stretches scientific rationality to the breaking point”, he says. “I would be much more concerned about the hundreds of millions of people who will be displaced by rising sea levels.” | – If trekking into the wilds of northern Canada, drilling samples out of the ice core, and analyzing caribou poop to find a pair of really old viruses sounds like your idea of a hot Friday night, well, we present you Eric Delwart. As NPR reports, the viral researcher did just that with 700-year-old caribou scat after it occurred to him that the ice "is nature's freezer, which should also contain organic remains." And given that animals of all kinds are "constantly shoving viruses down our throat ... if you look at poo samples from humans and from animals you will find a lot of viruses," he reasoned. Delwart's theory panned out, and he found two previously undiscovered viruses. His results, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that DNA in one of the viruses was in such great shape that it could be used to infect a plant. And while Delwart doesn't think either is dangerous, NPR offers up this cautionary coda: "As the North warms and ice melts, more caribou poo infected with ancient viruses will be finding its way into the modern ecosystem." (Speaking of things perhaps best left alone, a lab has revived history's deadliest flu virus.) |
A huge, secret, underground Nazi weapons factory, believed to have been built for the development and planned manufacture of nuclear weapons and other WMDs, has been uncovered in Austria.
Now scholars want to know if the SS general who oversaw it was brought to America after the war to help the US with its weapons programs.
The vast weapons facility was uncovered last week near the town of St. Georgen an der Gusen by a team led by Austrian documentary- maker Andreas Sulzer, who said it was “likely the biggest secret weapons production facility of the Third Reich.” The 75-acre industrial complex is located close to a second subterranean factory, the B8 Bergkristall facility where the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter, was produced toward the end of World War II, London’s Sunday Times reported (paywall).
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The existence of the facility was mentioned in the diaries of an Austrian physicist who worked for the Nazis, and Sulzer used ground-penetrating radar technology to pinpoint its location. His team cut away layers of earth and granite slabs with which the Nazis had sealed the entrance shaft.
“Declassified intelligence documents as well as testimony from witnesses helped excavators identify the concealed entrance,” The Times said. Work on the excavation was halted last week by local authorities who required that he get new permits for the dig, but is set to resume next month.
“Previous research had found increased levels of radiation around the St Georgen site, apparently giving credibility to longstanding claims that Nazi scientists experimented with nuclear weapons in the area, which was under the exclusive command of the SS,” the Times reported.
It quoted Rainer Karlsch, a historian working with Sulzer, saying:
“The SS leadership . . . aspired to create a combination of missiles and weapons of mass destruction. They wanted to equip the A4 [a variant of the V-2] missile, or more advanced rockets, with poison gas, radioactive material or nuclear warheads.”
“The facility, like the Bergkristall factory, relied on slave labor from the nearby Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp,” the Sunday Times said. “Up to 320,000 inmates are said to have died because of the brutal conditions in the subterranean labyrinth.”
“Prisoners from concentration camps across Europe were handpicked for their special skills — physicists, chemists or other experts — to work on this monstrous project,” Sulzer told the British newspaper, “and we owe it to the victims to finally open the site and reveal the truth.”
Sulzer, whose work is being partly funded by German state TV network ZDF, is also seeking to establish what became of SS General Hans Kammler, who managed the project and reported to SS chief Heinrich Himmler.
“Kammler was in charge of Hitler’s missile programs, including the V-2 rocket used against London in the latter stages of the war. He was known as a brilliant but ruthless commander, who had signed off the blueprints for the gas chambers and crematoria at the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in southern Poland,” The Times reported. “Rumors persist that he was captured by the Americans and given a new identity after the war.”
In the post-war Operation Paperclip, some 1,500 scientists, technicians and engineers from Nazi Germany and other countries — who were believed capable of contributing to US weapons programs, and whose expertise the US did not want going to the Russians — were brought to America. Nazi party participants, activists and supporters were supposed to have been excluded from this program, but this restriction was circumvented, and recruits included rocket scientist Wernher von Braun — the central figure n Nazi rocket development.
Kammler is believed to have lived at the St. Georgen site, and was headquartered in an area captured by the US Army in May 1945.
“Kammler was officially said to have committed suicide after the war. But according to John Richardson, supported by declassified documents from the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), he was interrogated by Richardson’s father and then taken to America as part of Operation Paperclip,” the newspaper reported. Donald Richardson worked for the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA. ||||| Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A gigantic secret Nazi weapons factory where a NUCLEAR BOMB may have been developed has been discovered in Austria.
The 75-acre facility, located near the town of St Georgen an der Gusen, is believed to have been used to create and test weapons of mass destruction and was deemed so important to the Nazis that the head of the SS and Hitler's right hand man Heinrich Himmler, even oversaw its development.
The complex, which experts believe was the "biggest secret weapons production facility of the Third Reich", was discovered by Andreas Sulzer, an Austrian documentary maker who found reference to the bunkers in the diaries of an old Austrian physicist.
They were so well hidden though that bulldozing equipment was to needed to cut away massive granite plates the Nazis had used to hide the entrance shaft in 1945. Ground penetrating radar was also required to confirm reports of how large the facility was.
The facility is believed to be linked to the nearby B8 Bergkristall underground factory that produced the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter, that posed a brief threat to allied air forces in the war's closing stages.
(Image: German Federal Archives)
Mr Sulzer told The Times: "This was a gigantic industrial complex."
And similar to the Bergkristall factory, it relied on slave labour from the nearby Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. Up to 320,000 inmates are said to have died because of the brutal conditions in the subterranean labyrinth.
In order to fully discover the meaning behind the secret facility Mr Sulzer assembled a crack team of historians and found further evidence of scientists working on the secret project, which was managed by the feared SS General Hans Kammler.
Kammler, known to be a ruthless leader, was in charge of Hitler's missile programmes, including the V-2 rocket used against London in the latter stages of the war. He was also the man who signed off blueprints for the gas chambers that killed millions of Jews.
Rainer Karlsch, a historian who worked with Mr Sulzer, said: "The SS leadership aspired to create a combination of missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
"They wanted to equip the A4 [a variant of the V-2] missile, or more advanced rockets, with poison gas, radioactive material or nuclear warheads."
Later the Russian army plundered Bergkristall removed all the technology and then destroyed and filled in the bunkers.
The second part of the site, which Sulzer has discovered, seems to have remained unnoticed by both the Americans and the Russians.
Sulzer's excavation was stopped last Wednesday by local authorities, who demanded a permit for research on historic sites. But he is confident that digging can resume next month.
"Prisoners from concentration camps across Europe were handpicked for their special skills — physicists, chemists or other experts — to work on this monstrous project and we owe it to the victims to finally open the site and reveal the truth," said Sulzer.
Artwork by former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler: ||||| A secret underground weapons stronghold, built by the Nazis to test new advanced weaponry has been uncovered in Austria.
The surprise finding was discovered underground near the town of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, Austria, near the Bergkristall factory where the Messerschmitt Me 262 – the first operational jet-powered fighter – was invented.
The discovery of the site came after Andreas Sulzer, an Austrian documentary maker noticed a reference to the bunkers in the diary of Austrian physicist who was recruited by the Nazis.
Sulzer, alongside a team of historians, began to investigate the idea of the bunkers, receiving funding from several German broadcasters to document his discoveries.
Sulzer, one of the excavations' coordinators, spoke proudly of the discovery: "This was a gigantic industrial complex and most likely the biggest secret weapons production facility of the Third Reich."
He acquired aerial photographs from RAF plane that showed outlines of the complex's concrete structure.
Prior to their downfall, the Nazis went to great lengths to conceal the weapons facility, covering the entrances with thick layers of earth and slabs of granite.
The vast underground network of tunnels were built by inmates at the nearby Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. It is believed that an estimated 320,000 inmates died building the labyrinth of concrete tunnels and shafts.
It is believed to be the location of a secret weapons programme, led by SS General Hans Kammler. Kammler is thought to have lived on the site during the war. Rumours continue to surround his death, with some suggesting he was given a new identity by the US government in exchange for details on Nazi weapons research.
The deadly V-2 rocket which struck at London during the final months of the World War II was tested at the complex. It is also thought that scientists experimented with the use of radioactive material and chemical gas.
The new excavations have had a setback, after local authorities ordered them to be halted until Sulzer obtains a proper permit for the research of historical sites. ||||| Vast secret Nazi ‘terror weapons’ site uncovered
The newly found site may be connected to the B8 Bergkristall factory (RAHD)
A SECRET underground complex built by the Nazis towards the end of the Second World War that may have been used for the development of weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear bomb, has been uncovered in Austria.
The vast facility was discovered last week near the town of St Georgen an der Gusen. It is believed to be connected to the nearby B8 Bergkristall underground factory that produced the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter, that posed a brief threat to allied air forces in the war’s closing stages.
Although the Bergkristall factory was examined after the war, the Nazis went to much greater lengths to conceal the newly discovered bunkers apparently used for weapons research. Declassified intelligence documents as well as testimony from witnesses helped excavators identify the concealed entrance.
Heavy equipment was deployed to cut away thick layers of soil as well as large | – Suspiciously high radiation levels around the Austrian town of St. Georgen an der Gusen had long fueled theories that there was a buried bunker nearby where Nazis had tested nuclear weapons during WWII. Those suspicions came one step closer to being confirmed last week after the opening of a 75-acre underground complex was dug out from below the earth and granite used to seal off the entrance, the Times of Israel reports. The excavation team was led by Austrian filmmaker Andreas Sulzer, who says the site was "likely the biggest secret weapons production facility of the Third Reich"—a facility that probably relied on forced labor from the nearby Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp and may have even been the testing location for a nuclear bomb, the Daily Mirror reports. The weapons facility was believed to have been manned by SS General Hans Kammler and situated near the B8 Bergkristall factory, where the first working jet-powered fighter was created, International Business Times reports; Sulzer first got wind of the site after seeing references to it in an Austrian physicist's diary. "Up to 320,000 inmates are said to have died because of the brutal conditions in the subterranean labyrinth," Sulzer tells the Sunday Times, per the Times of Israel. Those inmates were chosen for skills in physics, chemistry, or other sciences that would advance the Nazis' quest for WMD, Sulzer says. Digging at the site was halted by local officials who demanded a permit, but Sulzer says excavation will restart next month. "We owe it to the victims to finally open the site and reveal the truth," he says, per the Mirror. (The US is still keeping nuclear warheads around to fight … asteroids?) |
Image copyright PA/Broward Sheriff's Office Image caption Lewis Bennett was given a seven-month jail sentence for smuggling stolen coins
A British man who claimed his American wife had disappeared at sea after their catamaran sank off the coast of Cuba has admitted killing her.
Lewis Bennett and Isabella Hellmann had been married three months when she was reported missing by her husband.
Detectives later learnt that the boat had been deliberately sunk. Her body has never been found.
On Monday Bennett, 41, admitted a charge of involuntary manslaughter at a hearing in Miami, Florida.
The British-Australian dual citizen, from Poole, Dorset, had been due to stand trial in December charged with second degree murder.
But he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of unlawful killing without malice after striking a plea deal.
The couple had been sailing the 37ft (11m) catamaran from Cuba to their home in Delray Beach, Florida, when Bennett reported Ms Hellmann missing in an SOS call on 15 May 2017.
He claimed their catamaran was sinking and his 41-year-old wife was nowhere to be seen.
Image copyright US Coast Guard Image caption Bennett reported his wife missing in an SOS call as their catamaran was sinking
However, the authorities soon suspected that Bennett had killed his wife, who was the mother of his child.
In the months after her disappearance he asked for her to be declared dead.
Prosecutors alleged that he was motivated by money, as he would have inherited Ms Hellmann's apartment in Florida and the contents of her bank account.
During his rescue investigators also found that he had been smuggling stolen antique coins, worth nearly £30,000.
He had reported the coins as being stolen from a former employer in St Maarten a year earlier.
Bennett is currently serving a seven-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to transporting the coins.
He faces a maximum eight-year prison term when he is sentenced over his wife's death next year. ||||| This article is over 4 months old
Prosecutors argue that Lewis Bennett, from Dorset, and his wife, Isabella Hellman, were ‘consistently’ rowing
British man accused of murdering wife in Caribbean to inherit her estate
A British sailor murdered his wife and deliberately sank their catamaran in the Caribbean to inherit her estate, prosecutors in the US have alleged.
Lewis Bennett, of Poole, Dorset, was smuggling rare stolen coins when he was rescued alone off the coast of Cuba without his wife Isabella Hellmann in May 2017.
Hellmann’s body has not been found and the FBI have charged Bennett with her murder.
Court papers filed in the US this week alleged that Hellmann’s family bugged her apartment in Delray Beach, Florida, to listen to Bennett’s conversations because they suspected him in her disappearance.
FBI arrests Briton over disappearance of wife from yacht Read more
The newlyweds were sailing towards their home in America last year when Bennett made an SOS call saying the 41-year-old former estate agent was missing and the vessel was sinking.
Prosecutor Benjamin Greenberg asked a Florida judge to admit into evidence conversations with loved ones where Hellmann is said to have discussed rows over a mooted move to Australia, their dire finances and the raising of their daughter.
He argued they show the pair were “consistently” rowing, with “potentially one of the arguments ultimately resulting in the murder of Hellmann”.
“Hellmann’s murder would remove the marital strife from the defendant’s life, allow the defendant to live his life as he pleased, and would enable him to inherit money from Hellmann’s estate, all of which provide strong circumstantial proof that the defendant had a strong motive to murder Hellmann,” Greenberg continued.
If Hellmann is declared to be dead – as Bennett, 41, has requested – he would inherit her apartment and the contents of her bank account.
Prosecutors also alleged she may have discovered he was in possession of the gold and silver coins stolen from his former employer in St Maarten – action that could have made her an accomplice in the crime.
This “potentially led to an intense argument resulting in Hellmann’s murder”, Greenberg wrote.
The FBI accused the Briton, who also has Australian citizenship, of intentionally scuttling the 37ft vessel. He is serving a seven-month jail term after admitting transporting the coins worth $38,480 (£29,450).
Bennett is due to go on trial accused of second degree murder in December. | – Prosecutors say a British sailor initially arrested on charges he was smuggling gold and silver coins while on a voyage to Cuba now includes murder charges. The FBI believes Lewis Bennett killed his wife, Isabella Hellman, as they plied the Atlantic last year, the Guardian reports. After Bennett was rescued alone, he faced theft and attempted smuggling charges for allegedly stealing gold and silver coins authorities say belonged to a former employer in St. Maarten. As the Palm Beach Post reports, Bennett was just about to be sentenced to seven months in jail for the crimes when prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder. While Bennett told police following his rescue that he awoke on his 37-foot catamaran May 15, 2017, to a loud thud and went on deck to find his wife gone, prosecutors have outlined a more sinister chain of events. They have suggested a fight may have occurred between the husband and wife, possibly concerning the coins, that led Bennett to kill her. The couple's daughter is reportedly in England with Bennett's parents. He is slated to appear in a Miami federal court on the new charges Dec. 10. |
The pastor of St. Aloysius church on Springfield’s north end has been granted a leave of absence after he called 911 from the rectory and told a dispatcher that he needed help getting out of handcuffs.
“I’m going to need help getting out before this becomes a medical emergency,” Father Tom Donovan told a dispatcher who sounds a bit incredulous during the Nov. 28 call.
“You’re stuck in a pair of handcuffs?” the dispatcher asks.
“(I was) playing with them and I need help getting out,” Donovan responds.
Donovan told the dispatcher that he was alone in the rectory. It’s not clear exactly how he ended up in handcuffs or why he feared a medical emergency. His voice sounds garbled or muffled on the tape, and sources say that police discovered some sort of gag on the priest when they arrived.
The diocese has been tight-lipped about the matter, saying only that Bishop Thomas Paprocki granted Donovan’s request for a leave of absence at some point before Christmas. The diocese knows about the incident, given that Brad Huff, an attorney for the diocese, has been given a copy of the 911 tape by the Sangamon County Emergency Telephone System Department. Kathie Sass, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Springfield, said that the diocese also has a copy of a police report on the matter.
Sass would not disclose Donovan’s whereabouts or say whether he is staying at a church-affiliated location.
“I wouldn’t be able to tell you where Father Donovan is,” Sass said. “There’s a matter of privacy there.”
Sass said that Donovan approached Paprocki after the incident and asked for help.
“He came to the bishop before anyone was aware of the incident,” Sass said. “He came to the bishop and asked for help and was granted leave.”
Paprocki reviewed the police report after speaking with Donovan, and the police account jibed with what the priest told the bishop, Sass said.
Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected]. ||||| Father Tom Donovan as seen in his Linked-In profile
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Springfield, IL — A Catholic priest from the Springfield diocese headed by Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, who testified against Illinois' marriage equality bill, is on administrative leave after calling 911 to report that he was unable to remove a pair of handcuffs he'd been "playing with.""I'm going to need help getting out before this becomes a medical emergency," Father Tom Donovan told a dispatcher during the Nov. 28 call."You're stuck in a pair of handcuffs?" the dispatcher asks."(I was) playing with them and I need help getting out," Donovan responds.His voice on the 911 tape released Friday by police sounds garbled or muffled. When police arrived at the St. Aloysius church, they discovered Donovan in the church's rectory where he was also wearing a gag.Donovan told the dispatcher that he was alone in the rectory when he was gagged and cuffed. There has been no explanation as to how Donovan handcuffed and gagged himself.St. Aloysius church is under the Diocese of Springfield headed by Bishop Paprocki since June 2010. Paprocki lead a group of three that testified against Illinois' gay marriage bill on Thursday."The pending bill would radically redefine what marriage is for everybody," Bishop Paprocki said before a Senate Executive Committee. "Laws have long-term consequences because laws teach—they tell us what is socially acceptable, and what is not."Bishop Paprocki and the diocese have remained tight-lipped about the matter. Kathie Sass, spokeswoman for the Springfield diocese, would not disclose Donovan's whereabouts to the Illinois Times or say whether he is staying at a church-affiliated location."There's a matter of privacy there," she said.Bishop Paprocki made national headlines in September 2012 when he told parishioners that voting for Democrats, "makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy."Source: Illinois Times | – An Illinois priest made a very awkward 911 call back in November that's just now coming to light: Father Tom Donovan told the dispatcher he needed help getting out of a pair of handcuffs he had been "playing with." "I'm going to need help before this becomes a medical emergency," he says in a garbled voice in the recording obtained by the Illinois Times. When police arrived at the church, where Donovan was alone in the rectory, they found the priest was also gagged. Not surprisingly, the diocese doesn't have much to say on the matter, but it did acknowledge that Donovan was granted a leave of absence sometime before Christmas. He approached Bishop Thomas Paprocki before the incident became news. "He came to the bishop and asked for help and was granted leave," a spokesperson says. |
It's not just the joystick junkie in me that admires "Wreck-It Ralph," Disney's wacky new comic adventure with a lovable lug of a video game character at its center. The movie's subversive sensibility and old-school/new-school feel are a total kick.
Its 3-D animation antics are colored by an '80s-era arcade look that is retro deluxe, while its antihero's destructive tendencies have him working a very au courant 12-step program.
John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch and Jack McBrayer voice the anarchy that is about to hit one particular arcade in capital fashion. Though the film is theoretically set in present day, everything about it evokes the not-too-distant past when a quarter would buy a kid a lot of time on a computer game and the arcade was still considered a cool hangout by the adolescent set.
PHOTOS: Familiar 'Wreck-It Ralph' baddies
A bit like "Tron," the film exists mostly within the games themselves. The various good guys and bad guys live ordinary lives when the kids aren't there making the moves. The film is far more clever in playing off our connection to everything that is wired in this world — a kid's crushing disappointment when a game is on the fritz is a classic moment.
But "Wreck-It" digs deeper, without getting too heavy, about the ways in which the electronic world has redefined human interaction — the isolation it can breed, the inculcation of a winner/loser class divide, the very social strata that turn out to be remarkably fragile when someone resists.
Consider the games that define "Wreck-It Ralph." The action shifts through three, each with a distinctive visual style and cultural subtext. It starts with Ralph's (Reilly) home base, a simple one called "Fix-It Felix Jr." that is built around the big guy's demolition skills and Felix's (McBrayer) mess-fixing magic hammer. Even the character design is working-class — Ralph bulked up, Felix smaller but equally efficient.
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Not far away is the hyper-violent, and hyper-styled, war game "Hero's Duty." Here all the bodies are hard, especially Sgt. Calhoun's (Lynch), a svelte soldier in skin-tight fatigues who has never met a man she didn't want to order around.
And then there's the movie's sweet spot — the anime-influenced "Sugar Rush" — a go-cart extravaganza built out of mouth-watering confections so enticing it will make your teeth hurt. There lives a spunky little glitch (think of it as a computer version of a character flaw) named Vanellope von Schweetz that Silverman milks for all it's worth. She wants her shot at winning a race, but the game won't allow "glitches" to compete and there's a mean-girl group around to make her life miserable. Vanellope keeps pixelating at the most inopportune times — maddening when it's happening on your laptop, genius in the way it keeps the story rocking. She's about to enlist Ralph in her game-changing efforts and a fragile friendship will be born. The testing of their bond does much to shape events in the film, but it will take Ralph a little time to get there.
Ralph's journey begins, as so many do these days, with a little soul-searching during a support group session with other arcade villains. After 30 years in the demo game he's having second thoughts. Destruction is only his day job, but at night Ralph is still on the outside looking in. He feels miscast and misunderstood.
So he sets out for a game that he can win, and a gold medal that he can claim — certain that's the key to acceptance back home. His going rogue sets in motion all sorts of problems with Felix and Sgt. Calhoun in hot pursuit — "hot" being the operative word for their surprisingly sizzling connection.
There is great attention to detail in the creation of Ralph's universe — both in design and in intent. Take the transit system that runs through the electric cords — not only does it look cool, it allows the characters to break out of their own boxes. And who doesn't need that on occasion? Game Central Station — grand and meticulously conceived — is the gateway to the inner-arcade world. Echoes of a certain New York City Beaux-Arts terminal are surely intended and is but one of many delicious visual allusions.
The ever-present fear for the game pieces is that a bug will corrupt their system, a fear that soon threatens to become reality. From the invading bug and the way it spreads to the computerized innards of the games, the animators have had a field day.
Despite "Wreck-It Ralph's" mind-boggling visual range, the film's major asset is its humanity. First-time feature animation director Rich Moore never loses sight of that as he revs up this fast-moving film. Guess those years spent on "The Simpsons" didn't hurt. Written by Phil Johnston, whose first feature was last year's smart real-people comedy "Cedar Rapids," and Jennifer Lee making her feature debut, the script never sacrifices the central story for a joke either. That choice makes room for a lot of heart to work its way in around the comedy with Reilly and Silverman, both excellent, doing the heavy lifting on that front.
More culturally connected and a tad racier than we usually see in the Disney brand, "Wreck-It Ralph" does a terrific job of providing enough oomph and aaaahs for adults and plenty of giggles for kids inside its artfully wrapped animation package. Whether the presence of Pixar's John Lasseter at the studio's animation helm or the new kids on the filmmaking block are responsible, the film blows in like a fresh 21st century breeze.
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MPAA rating: PG for some rude humor and mild action violence
Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Playing: In general release
[email protected] ||||| Dozens of films have failed at bringing established video game properties to the movie screen, but for their latest piece of feature-length digital animation Disney has borrowed a page from fun flicks like Tron, The Last Starfighter, and Wargames. It may be difficult to translate an existing video game into film form, but based on those three ’80s classics and the new-fangled Wreck-It Ralph, it’s not that tough to make an entertaining movie about video games.
Described on various twitter accounts as “Tron meets Toy Story,” the endlessly colorful Wreck-It Ralph tells the story of a video game villain who yearns for a life outside of the cruel monotony of the video game cabinet. Ralph (voiced wonderfully by John C. Reilly) might be a bruising bully when his game, Fix-It Felix Jr., is on, but when the lights go out in the arcade, the poor schlub dreams of a destiny in which he isn’t typecast as a clumsy jerk who sleeps on a giant pile of bricks. After trying to be social and earning nothing but disdain from his co-workers in return, Ralph escapes from his video game and begins a quest to become a “good guy.”
And of course all PG-rated heck breaks loose.
Wreck-It Ralph is that rare animated feature that may appeal more to the parents than to the under-12-year-olds that follow them around all the time. The key to much of Wreck-It Ralph’s charm lies in simple and affectionate nostalgia — “hey, I remember that video game!” will pop into your head quite frequently — but a film cannot coast by on nostalgia alone, and Wreck-It Ralph also boasts high marks in the essential departments of warmth, character, adventure, novelty, and humor. Like the best Disney features, Wreck-It Ralph has a generous parcel of sweet and effective “life lessons” for the younger audience members, but (like the best Disney features) they don’t get in the way of the action, the wit, and the strangely adorable characters.
Reilly’s slightly exasperated but kind-hearted voice does wonders for the Ralph character, and the actor is flanked by some great co-stars. Jack McBrayer (as Felix), Sarah Silverman (as a ditzy little race car driver who befriends Ralph), and Jane Lynch (as an RPG game commando who somehow gets caught up in the lunacy) are simply great. It’s not just “gimmick casting” with well-known performers; each actor brings something fun or fresh to their character. And a special mention has to go to the always-affable Alan Tudyk, who is usually a likable presence in any film, but here gets to play a villain with an Ed Wynn voice, and the guy does a simply fantastic job of it.
Set to a wonderfully clever Henry Jackman score, boasting more “groan/giggle-worthy” puns than you’ll know what to do with, knee-deep in video game nostalgia but not slavishly beholden to the past, and effortlessly smooth, slick, and silly from beginning to end, Wreck-It Ralph is one of the best animated features of the year, and we’ve already had several darn good animated features this year. In addition to being 95 consecutive minutes of smart, family-friendly fun, Wreck-It Ralph stands as a welcome reminder that while most video game movies stink, movies about the world of video games can be a treat for kids of all ages, provided the filmmakers approach the material with experience, affection, and a strong sense of humor. ||||| 'Wreck-It Ralph': Game on!
James Rocchi, Special to MSN Movies
Our title character, voiced by John C. Reilly, is a bit player in a retro video game called "Fix-It Felix Jr." -- the heel, the bad guy, the destroyer. When we plug a quarter into the cabinet, Ralph and the game's other residents spring to work. Off duty, they're kind of like us, but not. Tired of his endless task of breaking a building only so hero Felix will repair it, and then shut out from an anniversary party for, and by, the game's other blocky residents, he's had it. And so he sets out to be a different person in a world with very different rules than ours, where who you are is literally part of the game's program. Directed by "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" veteran Rich Moore, "Wreck-It Ralph" is fun and warm and bright and terrific. There are moments in it a little too ornate for me both in the comedy and the plot, but it also earns every good feeling it gets.
Search: More on John C. Reilly | More on Sarah Silverman
Ralph is an unlikely hero, and on his unlikely heroic journey he travels to the worlds inside the other game machines at Litwak's Arcade and makes friends in his travels, like jut-jawed knockout Sgt. Calhoun (Jane Lynch) from the violent first-person shooter "Hero's Duty" or the goofy, giddy, glitchy Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), an exile without honor in the candy-themed racing game "Sugar Rush." Ralph even comes to understand, and be understood by, Felix (Jack McBrayer) himself. Broad in shoulder and a tad inarticulate, Ralph also comes to understand himself, and it is here that John C. Reilly's work as a narrator and as a character transcends just entertainment.
The entire voice cast, for that matter, is excellent, with Silverman a standout in what may be, yes, the finest acting work she's ever done as the annoying but heartbroken Vanellope. And Moore's direction of Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee's screenplay fizzes like the Mentos-and-diet-cola hot springs that waits, in "Sugar Rush"'s candy land, like a Mordor of stickiness. There are great jokes, but also great jokes about character, like when McBrayer makes a jailbreak gag strike at the heart of Felix's digital soul with real emotion, a singularly brilliant character moment with a deft touch that's still the work of many hands.
Moore's direction and the film might be a little too ambitious, with a switch too far perhaps in the finale. But the film is as fast and strong and determined as Ralph himself as it jumps between pop culture references that go from the ancient Greeks in Ralph's Sisyphus-like task to the next iteration of "Halo" in another great character moment for Sgt. Calhoun. At one point, Ralph, inside "Hero's Duty," screams, "When did video games become so violent and scary?" That line alone is smarter and funnier and more savvy about video games than all of "Tron: Legacy." Alan Tudyk's wacky but dictatorial King Candy, who rules "Sugar Rush" with an iron fist inside a four-fingered velvet glove, has the vocal tone and tenor of Ed Wynn's Mad Hatter in 1951's "Alice in Wonderland." Moore's work on "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" has given him years of experience in what it takes to pull off broad silly jokes and big clever references, with the added benefit of playing both brows against the middle.
And yet as clever as the writing is, as fast and fleet the direction is, as bright and bouncy as the worlds inside the games at Litwak's are (especially in 3-D), these things matter thanks to the heart and soul of Ralph and Reilly's performance as him. Ralph comes to help Vanellope in her fondest wishes at first out of blackmail and eventually because he recognizes that helping her break the rules of her game's program is helping him change the rules of his life, and making him change how he sees them. Ralph wants to be a different program; he winds up a different person. "Wreck-It Ralph" is a serious contender for the title of best animated film of the year, and while it might seem speedy and stuffed to bursting, all of the story and craft and cleverness never overwhelm the sincere and rewarding heart of a computer-animated film with real joy and humanity in it.
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James Rocchi's writings on film have appeared at Cinematical.com, Netflix.com, AMCtv.com, IFC.com, SFGate.com and in Mother Jones magazine. He was also the on-air film critic for San Francisco's CBS-5 from 2006 to 2008. He now lives in Los Angeles, where every ending is a twist ending. | – Disney's new animated movie Wreck-it Ralph is rocking Rotten Tomatoes with an 85% rating, and some critics say it's the best animated movie of the year. The laffer features the voices of Sarah Silverman and John C. Reilly as video game stars in an 8-bit arcade world. A few quotes from the critics: The movie mixes a retro look and slapstick gags with a sense of humanity, writes Betsey Sharkey at the LA Times. Looking at how technology influences social lives, the movie shows "the isolation it can breed, the inculcation of a winner/loser class divide, the very social strata that turn out to be remarkably fragile when someone resists." The movie delivers nostalgia, wit, and strong characters with a "generous parcel of sweet and effective 'life lessons' for the younger audience members," writes Scott Weinberg at GeekNation. Michael O'Sullivan doesn't quite agree at the Washington Post. He credits the movie's premise but says it ultimately "emphasizes action and eye-popping visuals over emotion," with a narrative that "is overly busy, noisy, and unengaging." James Rocchi says the whole cast is excellent, and Sarah Silverman's portrayal of a heartbroken but irritating game character might be her best performance ever. "The story and craft and cleverness never overwhelm the sincere and rewarding heart of a computer-animated film with real joy and humanity in it," he writes at MSN Movies. |
Police try to calm a man at the scene of a shooting in Liege, Belgium, Tuesday, May 29, 2018. A gunman killed three people, including two police officers, in the Belgian city of Liege on Tuesday, a city... (Associated Press)
Police try to calm a man at the scene of a shooting in Liege, Belgium, Tuesday, May 29, 2018. A gunman killed three people, including two police officers, in the Belgian city of Liege on Tuesday, a city official said. Police later killed the attacker, and other officers were wounded in the shooting.(AP... (Associated Press)
LIEGE, Belgium (AP) — A knife-wielding prison inmate on a 48-hour leave stabbed two police officers Tuesday in the Belgian city of Liege, seized their service weapons and shot them and a bystander to death before being mowed down by a group of officers, setting off a major terror investigation into the country's most savage assault since 2016 suicide attacks.
Prime Minister Charles Michel acknowledged the assailant, who had a lengthy criminal record that included theft, assault and drug offenses, had appeared in three reports on radicalism but was still allowed to take a leave from prison.
"Is our system working when we see that these kind of people are running free?" asked vice premier Alexander De Croo, echoing the thoughts of many in a nation where armed police and gun-toting soldiers still patrol the streets in the wake of the March 2016 attacks that left 32 people dead at the Brussels airport and subway system.
Tuesday's attack happened outside a cafe in the eastern city of Liege when the assailant crept up on the two female officers from behind and stabbed them repeatedly.
"He then took their weapons. He used the weapons on the officers, who died," the Liege prosecutor's spokesman, Philippe Dulieu, told reporters.
Dulieu said the attacker then shot and killed a 22-year-old teacher in a vehicle that was leaving a parking lot outside a nearby high school. He then took two women hostage inside the school before confronting police massed outside.
"He came out firing at police, wounding a number of them, notably in the legs. He was shot dead," the spokesman said, adding that the hostages escaped unharmed.
Justice Minister Koen Geens described the assailant as a repeat offender who had been incarcerated since 2003 and was due for release in two years.
Police Chief Christian Beaupere said "the goal of the attacker was to target the police." He identified the slain officers as 45-year-old Lucile Garcia and 53-year-old Soraya Belkacemi. He said Belkacemi was the mother of 13-year-old twin daughters who earlier lost their father, also a police officer. Four other officers were wounded in the attack, one seriously with a severed femoral artery.
Belgian media identified the suspect as Benjamin Herman, a Belgian national born in 1982, though in keeping with standard procedure authorities declined to confirm his identity.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon said authorities were also investigating the suspected killing on Monday of an old acquaintance of the assailant and said there could be a link. "It is a serious hypothesis," he told the VRT network.
Asked about a video from close to the scene in which someone appeared to be shouting "Allahu Akbar!" in the din, Jambon said: "My reaction is that in many terror acts, it is the last thing they shout." But, he added, it is up to federal investigators to determine if Tuesday's attack was terrorism.
"The investigation judge must find out if we talk about terror. Because terror also has to do with someone who gives the order, ISIS or someone else, if others are involved. We need to look at all these elements," Jambon said.
Michel said the suspect in Tuesday's attack was indirectly mentioned in state security reports on radicalization. But, the prime minister added, the reference was "in notes that did not primarily target him, but others or other situations," and he was not on a list of suspects maintained by the main OCAD anti-terror assessment group.
Asked about reports that the assailant was radicalized in prison, Geens, the justice minister, said it "was not a clear-cut case."
"He certainly was not someone who could clearly be qualified as radicalized. Otherwise he would have been known as such by all services," Geens said.
But a senior official at the federal prosecutor's office told The Associated Press that "there are indications it could be a terror attack." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Nevertheless, Belgium's crisis center said the country's terror threat alert would not be raised and remained at level 2 out of 4. It briefly stood at a maximum 4 shortly after the 2016 attacks.
Belgium's King Philippe, Michel and the country's justice and interior ministers traveled to Liege to confer with local officials.
"I want to offer my government's support for the victims, for the victims' families," Michel said.
It's not the first time Liege has been hit by a violent attack. In December 2011, a man with a history of weapons and drug offenses hurled hand grenades into a square filled with Christmas shoppers then opened fire on those who tried to escape. Five people were killed, including the assailant.
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Cook and Casert reported from Brussels. ||||| LIEGE, Belgium/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility on Wednesday for an attack the previous day in the Belgian city of Liege in which two policewomen and a bystander were killed, but provided no proof.
The militant group said in an online statement that a “soldier of the caliphate” had carried out what Belgian police called a terrorist attack. It has previously claimed similar “lone wolf” acts thought to be Islamist-inspired, often without providing evidence.
Belgian authorities meanwhile faced questions over why the attacker, a prison inmate who was suspected of links to radical Islamists in jail, was let out for a day. He was shot dead by police at a school near the scene.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon said authorities were still examining the motives of Benjamin Herman, a 31-year-old Belgian drug dealer who had been in jail for years but was let out for two days on Monday to prepare for an eventual release in 2020.
Herman had shouted “Allahu Akbar”, the Muslim affirmation of faith, during his attack and he had had contact with Islamist radicals in jail in 2016 and early 2017.
He also appeared to have followed online exhortations from Islamic State to stab police officers and use their service weapons to shoot others, prosecutors said.
A cleaning woman at the school who found herself “nose to face with the killer” told public broadcaster RTBF that he spared her because she was Muslim.
While he briefly held her hostage, he told her he wanted the police to “writhe; I want to make them stew”.
Justice Minister Koen Geens told RTBF radio he was having pangs of conscience over whether the man should have been allowed the furlough.
Still reeling from the attack, residents of Belgium’s third biggest city lay flowers and candles at the scene of the shooting on Wednesday, and officials held a moment of silence.
A policewoman reacts during a minute of silence in Liege, Belgium May 30, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
“We had all of the little ones from the high school who were evacuated,” said an emotional nursery school teacher, Joelle Chalon. “I walk this way to work every day.”
Authorities praised the quick-wittedness of the cafe owner outside whose bar Herman had killed the two policewomen, aged 54 and 44. By the time the killer, wielding two police pistols, came in looking for more victims, the cafe proprietor had got all of his customers into hiding.
Jambon described Herman as a psychologically unstable man who might have been on drugs, pointing to his murder of an acquaintance 50 km (30 miles) away on Monday night.
“There are signs he was radicalized in prison but is it that radicalization which drove him to commit these acts?” Jambon said, adding that although Herman was flagged up in security reports in 2016 and early 2017, he had been a fringe figure.
JAIL TO JIHAD?
In and out of jail for a variety of crimes since 2003, Herman may have found a path to violence that has heightened concerns that Europe’s prisons are incubators for jihadism.
It was the 14th time since his detention that he was granted temporary leave, Geens said. “Everyone in Belgium is asking the same question: how is it possible that someone convicted of such serious acts was allowed to leave prisons?” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander de Croo was quoted as saying.
The national crisis center, on high alert since a Brussels-based Islamic State cell helped kill 130 people in Paris in 2015, did not raise its alert level, indicating no follow-up attacks were expected.
“I think it was just one individual who completely snapped,” said Pieter Van Ostaeyen, a specialist on jihadism. “I don’t think it was an organized attack.”
Convicts have been behind several Islamist militant attacks in Europe. In Belgium, around 450 prisoners are deemed radical, including 46 that are seen as a threat of radicalizing others, according to lawmaker George Dallemagne, who sits on several Belgian parliamentary security committees.
“We have a tragic experience in Belgium, with people entering prison as petty criminals and leaving as terrorists,” he told Reuters.
Slideshow (15 Images) | – A knife-wielding prison inmate on a 48-hour leave stabbed two police officers Tuesday in the Belgian city of Liege, seized their service weapons, and shot them and a bystander to death before being mowed down by a group of officers, setting off a major terror investigation into the country's most savage assault since the March 2016 attacks that left 32 people dead at the Brussels airport and subway system. Prime Minister Charles Michel acknowledged the assailant, who had a lengthy criminal record that included theft, assault, and drug offenses, had appeared in three reports on radicalism but was still allowed to take a leave from prison, the AP reports. "Is our system working when we see that these kind of people are running free?" asked Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. The suspect is also believed to have killed an acquaintance the day before the Liege attack. Tuesday's attack happened outside a cafe when the assailant crept up on the two female officers from behind and stabbed them repeatedly. "He then took their weapons. He used the weapons on the officers, who died," the Liege prosecutor's spokesman, Philippe Dulieu, told reporters. Dulieu said the attacker then shot and killed a 22-year-old teacher in a vehicle that was leaving a parking lot outside a nearby high school. He then took two women hostage inside the school before confronting police massed outside. "He came out firing at police, wounding a number of them, notably in the legs. He was shot dead," the spokesman said, adding that the hostages escaped unharmed. Sources tell Reuters that the suspect was Benjamin Herman, an inmate who converted to Islam and became radicalized in prison. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. unemployment rate plunged in April to its lowest level since September 2008 as employers added 288,000 jobs, the most in two years.
The figures are a clear sign that the economy is picking up after a brutal winter slowed growth.
The Labor Department says the unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent from 6.7 percent in March. But the drop occurred because the number of people working or seeking work fell sharply. People not seeking work aren't counted as unemployed.
Employers also added more jobs in February and March than previously estimated. The job totals for those two months were revised up by a combined 36,000.
Job creation is accelerating: Employers added an average of 238,000 jobs the past three months. That's up from 167,000 in the previous three. ||||| U.S. employers added just 88,000 jobs in March, the fewest in nine months and a sharp retreat after a period of strong hiring. The slowdown is a reminder that the job market's path back to full health will be uneven.
This Friday, March 29, 2013, photo, shows a help wanted sign in front of a restaurant in Richmond, Va. The U.S. economy has enjoyed a four-month stretch of robust job gains, and on Friday, April 5,... (Associated Press)
The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dipped to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent. While that is the lowest in four years, the rate fell only because more people stopped looking for work. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively looking for a job.
The weakness in March may signal that some companies were worried last month about steep government spending cuts that began on March 1.
March's job gains were half the pace of the previous six months, when the economy added an average of 196,000 jobs a month. The drop raises fears that the economy could slow after a showing signs of strengthening over the winter. | – The unemployment rate fell to 8.1% in April, the lowest it’s been since January 2009, the Wall Street Journal reports. But that still gets an "ouch" from blogger Steven Russolillo since just 115,000 jobs were added, when as many as 168,000 had been expected. "It fell below expectations and even came in under the so-called 'whisper numbers,'" which were around 125,000, he writes. Plus, Paul Vigna adds, the unemployment rate has fallen in part because more people are "dropping out of the labor force," with the participation rate falling to 63.6%. The better news: Jobs for March and February were both revised upward, to 154,000 and 259,000, respectively. Even so, the AP points out, this is the second consecutive month of slow hiring, proving that the economy is still weak. |
School officials for a Tennessee county school district said they are trying to figure out why meat that was frozen more than five years ago was served to students at multiple schools.
A pork roast was served at schools in Hawkins County on April 22, even though it was frozen in 2009, a county official said.
Steve Starnes, the school director for Hawkins County told ABC affiliate WATE-TV in Knoxville that the school was now running inventory on food to ensure no years-old meat will be served again.
"We also began inventory on all of our frozen food items to make sure. We're not only going to be incorporating the package date, but also the delivery date on our inventory items to make sure we know exactly when those items came in," Starnes told WATE-TV.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as long as the meat remained entirely frozen it can be safe to eat indefinitely.
“Food stored constantly at 0 °F will always be safe,” the USDA reports on their website. “Only the quality suffers with lengthy freezer storage. Freezing keeps food safe by slowing the movement of molecules, causing microbes to enter a dormant stage.”
For quality and taste reasons pork roasts should be thawed and eaten within four to 12 months, according to the USDA.
Starnes told WATE-TV he wasn't sure why the meat from 2009 had been served at multiple schools and that schools would now be inspected quarterly to ensure food quality.
Michael Herrell, a county commissioner, said he was alerted to the use of the years-old frozen meat after the husband of a cafeteria worker sent him a picture of the thawed meat that was dated 2009 and served on April 22. Herrell told ABC News today that he brought up the issue with a local principal and then the school director because he was acting as a concerned parent.
"Students in Hawkins County -- that one meal makes a difference in their day," said Herrell, referring to the fact that the county is not affluent and many students rely on free or reduced lunch at school for their nourishmen. He explained he was concerned that younger children wouldn't be able to tell if something was amiss with the food. "These smaller kids ... they think it's alright if they're being served," Herrell said.
No students had been reported ill due to the meat, Starnes told WATE-TV. He did not immediately respond to requests for further comment from ABC News.
Herrell said his children didn't eat the pork roast served at their middle school and high school that day, and that despite the incident, he expects to allow his children to eat the school cafeteria food in the future.
"I think it will get fixed," Herrell said, noting that he hopes ingredients "don't fall through the crack again." ||||| ROGERSVILLE (WATE) – The Hawkins County school system is responding to the revelation that children were served old meat at school cafeterias. The meat had been in the freezer for several years before being served last week. It’s not clear if it was tainted.
Michael Herrell is a concerned parent and Hawkins County commissioner. He received a picture on Thursday of pork roast from a cafeteria cook at Joseph Rogers Primary School, the only school in the county that didn’t serve the pork roast to students that had a date from 2009.
“They go to school, and that might be the only meal they get all day long, and it just very upsets me that these kids are going to school to get that meal. It just didn’t go over well with me when I heard we were feeding these kids meat that’s dated 2009,” said Herrell.
Herrell says a cook at Cherokee High School also told him the meat was bad, but was told by the manager to cover it with gravy to give it a better taste.
The USDA guidelines for quality and taste for roast are between four and 12 months. Steve Starnes, Hawkins County director of schools, says they plan to follow these guidelines and implement new procedures.
“We also began inventory on all of our frozen food items to make sure. We’re not only going to be incorporating the package date, but also the delivery date on our inventory items to make sure we know exactly when those items came in,” said Starnes.
Starnes also says from this point on, each school will have random inspections quarterly. He says inspections will take place at two schools at a time to make sure inventory is running properly and this incident doesn’t happen again.
Starnes says he’s unsure how meat that old was still in all schools freezer, but inventory started Wednesday, checking all frozen food items. He also says there have been no complaints of any student getting sick ||||| You pretty much can’t ignore a New York Times headline that says “Alabama: School May Arm Students With Canned Peas.” And it’s exactly what it sounds like:
A middle school principal wants to stockpile cans of corn and peas in classrooms for students to hurl at possible intruders as a last defense.
Thank Principal Priscella Holley of W. F. Burns Middle School in Chambers County, Alabama, for this brainstorm. She sent a letter home to parents asking them to have their kids bring eight-ounce canned items to school so they can fling ’em at the bad guys. How’s this for persuasive?
The can “could stun the intruder or even knock him out until the police arrive,” Ms. Holley wrote. “The canned food item will give the students a sense of empowerment to protect themselves and will make them feel secure.”
It’s not an entirely insane idea. Al Franken said that after 9/11, he always carried three baseballs in his carry-on because he’s got a deadly accurate fastball and wanted to have something to take down a terrorist. Then again, he was, at the time, a professional satirist; as a senator, he has not introduced any Hurl Things For School Safety legislation.
It’s not clear where Holley came up with the idea to bean intruders with actual beans, but it’s no more insane than some other brilliant ideas for keeping kids safe while ensuring that Americans have access to high-powered weaponry everywhere. Within a week of the Sandy Hook massacre, libertarian wackaloon Megan McArdle said that, short of limiting firearms, the best solution would be to “encourage people to gang rush shooters” instead of hiding, and to teach school children the value of a suicidal banzai charge. And then there were the Oklahoma entrepreneurs who want to sell schools semi-bulletproof nap mats — only $1000 each — that will provide a genuine sense of false security while sheltering in place. And they could maybe protect kids from tornados, too!
Also, too, there are the more long-term societal changes that could prevent school shootings, like not letting schools be such feminized places where there are no men to protect women and children. Also, teaching morals, like “No, you should not shoot up a school,” could help. A Tennessee preacher figured that school shootings happen because teaching evolution has caused people to act like animals (also, abortion). And a Tea Party activist explained that getting rid of teachers’ unions would probably stop school shootings, though not as much as giving up on schools altogether and just homeschooling your kids.
In other words, chucking cans of creamed corn at an intruder is starting to sound pretty damned reasonable.
[NYT] | – If the Hawkins County school system in Tennessee had kept its meat in the freezer much longer, the meat might have been older than some of the students it was served to. The county says it's changing its procedures after students at many schools were served pork roast that turned out to have been frozen in 2009, ABC News reports. The US Department of Agriculture says it's safe to keep frozen meat almost indefinitely—though taste and quality will go downhill after four months to a year. According to WJHL, some cafeteria workers say the elderly lunch meat served up to students smelled so bad it stunk up entire schools, and cooks had to slather the meat in gravy to disguise its age. County officials say they're now carrying out an inventory to make sure no old meat is still lurking in school freezers. County Commissioner Michael Herrell went to officials after a cafeteria cook sent him a picture of the meat served on April 22, WATE reports. Herrell says the poor-quality meat is especially upsetting because it's a poor area where many kids get free or discounted meals and some rely on cafeteria food for nutrition. "They go to school, and that might be the only meal they get all day long, and it just very upsets me that these kids are going to school to get that meal," he tells WATE. "It just didn't go over well with me when I heard we were feeding these kids meat that's dated 2009." He tells ABC he worries that younger kids wouldn't be able to tell if there was something wrong with the food they were served. No illnesses have been reported related to the incident. (You won't find any meat, frozen or otherwise, at America's first all-vegan school.) |
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s May-December marriage was on the rocks after just three months, sources exclusively tell Page Six — but the starry couple agreed to give their shaky union a year before calling it quits.
Depp, 52, and Heard, 30, tied the knot in February of last year, but by May it was all but over, we hear. They decided to give themselves “a year” in hopes of patching things up and avoiding the embarrassment of a three-month marriage.
Sources close to the former couple told Page Six that grizzled star Depp quickly grew tired of Heard’s enchantment with Hollywood glitz. “Their relationship turned sour almost immediately. She’s really young and affected by the industry and ‘the scene’ at times,” said an insider, adding, “Don’t get me wrong; she’s a cool chick, but Johnny doesn’t tolerate that.”
We’re told Heard’s bisexual past also proved a problem. By Heard’s birthday in April last year, “she went to meet him to work on damage control,” we’re told, because her close friendship with photographer Io Tillett Wright, an activist in the gay and lesbian community, was causing drama in their marriage. We were told back then that Depp “doesn’t like Io” and believed they “were spending too much time together for it to be comfortable.” Wright was staying in Depp’s guest house and moved out.
“He started making her travel with him,” said an insider of Depp and Heard, “and she started distancing herself from her lesbian friends.”
The debacle with her dogs also helped sink the relationship. During an April 2015 trip to Australia, when Depp was shooting “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” Heard was infamously charged with illegally bringing along two terriers, Pistol and Boo — a drama that ended with a much-mocked video in which the couple awkwardly apologized. “[It] made him look so stupid and it was her fault,” sniffed another source.
Meanwhile, hard-partying and -working Depp is beginning to show his age. Another insider said, “Amber was like, ‘What am I doing with this old man who used to look like Johnny Depp?’ ”
Amber Heard is way more interesting than Johnny Depp: ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were married for less than two years
The divorce of film star Johnny Depp and actress Amber Heard has been finalised after months of wrangling over the final terms of the break up.
Depp, 53, has agreed to pay Heard $7m (£5.6m; €6.6m), which she says she will donate to two charities.
Heard, 30, will get to keep the couple's dogs, Pistol and Boo, who were at the centre of scandal when she took them to Australia illegally in 2015.
She had accused Depp of domestic abuse - a claim he denies.
According to court documents, she said Depp had been physically abusive to her, culminating in him throwing a mobile phone at her face during a fight in February last year.
Depp's lawyer denied the allegations, saying Heard was "attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse". Police officers attending the scene said they had found no evidence of a crime.
Image copyright Happy dogz/ABC Image caption Heard and Depp broke Australia's strict biosecurity laws when they failed to declare their dogs, Pistol (left) and Boo, during a visit there last year
The actress had filed for a restraining order, but this was dropped after the majority of the terms of the divorce were settled in August.
But the divorce was only finalised this week because lawyers could not agree over whether Depp should make the payments directly to the charities or not.
Divorce settlement - who gets what?
Depp to pay Heard $7m (£5.6m; €6.6m)
Heard to keep dogs Pistol and Boo, and a horse called Arrow
Depp to retain sole possession of real estate assets, including properties in LA, Paris and his private island in the Bahamas
He will also keep more than 40 vehicles and vessels, including vintage cars and motorcycle collection
Heard to drop request for continued restraining order against Depp
Confidentiality provision prevents them from discussing relationship publicly
No spousal support for either actor
Heard said she would donate the money from the divorce settlement to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.
Her lawyer, Pierce O'Donnell, said it was a "great day" for his client, adding: "All Amber wanted was to be divorced and now she is."
Depp's lawyer, Laura Wasser, said they were "all pleased to put this unpleasant chapter in Mr Depp and his family's lives behind them".
The couple, who have no children together, were married for just under 18 months when they split in May 2016.
Image copyright AP Image caption Heard appeared outside court with a bruised cheek last May
Depp has two children from a previous relationship with French singer and model Vanessa Paradis.
In a separate development on Friday, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor started legal proceedings to sue his former business managers for more than $25m.
He claimed The Management Group had failed to properly pay his taxes, made unauthorised loans and overpaid for security and other services, according to the Associated Press news agency.
A lawyer for the company, Michael J Kump, described the lawsuit as a "fabrication" and said it had done "everything possible to protect Depp from his irresponsible and profligate spending". | – Johnny Depp and Amber Heard married in February 2015 and were ready to split up by May of the same year—but in order to avoid "the embarrassment of a three-month marriage," they agreed to give it a year before throwing in the towel, sources tell Page Six. Heard, 30, is "really young and affected by the industry and 'the scene' at times," says one source. "Don't get me wrong; she's a cool chick, but Johnny [who is 52] doesn't tolerate that." Interestingly, Depp himself addressed the length of the marriage in a statement issued Thursday, the Telegraph reports: "Given the brevity of this marriage and the most recent and tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation, and lies about his personal life," it says. "Hopefully the dissolution of this short marriage will be resolved quickly." So, if things have been on the rocks for a year, does that mean they made that awkward dog apology video together begrudgingly? It would seem so. The video "made [Depp] look so stupid and it was her fault," adding to their marriage troubles, another source tells Page Six. One of the Sun's sources echoes that: "Johnny felt humiliated by the whole ordeal and believes Amber made him look like a fool. It just doesn't fit with his serious image and he hated being mocked. The dogs are Amber's so she should really have done the thorough checks." There are so many more amusing quotes where those came from, with sources also claiming "party girl" Heard was annoyed to have ended up with Depp at a "boring," not to mention what the Sun calls a "portly," time of his life. Plus, some sources are saying Depp's family never liked Heard. |
MINNEAPOLIS - Heavy snoring and sleep apnea may be linked to memory and thinking decline at an earlier age, according to a new study published in the April 15, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The research also suggests that treating the disorders with a breathing machine may delay the decline.
"Abnormal breathing patterns during sleep such as heavy snoring and sleep apnea are common in the elderly, affecting about 52 percent of men and 26 percent of women," said study author Ricardo Osorio, MD, with the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.
For the study, the medical histories for 2,470 people ages 55 to 90 were reviewed. Participants were categorized as either free of memory and thinking problems, in early stages of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or with Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers also looked at people with untreated sleep breathing problems versus those without the sleep breathing problems and also untreated versus treated people with sleep breathing problems.
The study found that people with sleep breathing problems were diagnosed with MCI an average of nearly 10 years earlier than people who did not have sleep breathing problems. For example, when researchers examined only people who developed MCI or Alzheimer's disease during the study, those with sleep breathing problems developed MCI at an average age of 77, compared to an average age of 90 for those who did not have sleep breathing problems. Among that group, those who had sleep breathing problems also developed Alzheimer's disease five years earlier than those who did not have sleep breathing problems, at an average age of 83 versus 88.
The researchers found that people who treated their sleep breathing problems with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine were diagnosed with MCI about 10 years later than people whose problems were not treated, or at age 82 instead of age 72.
"The age of onset of MCI for people whose breathing problems were treated was almost identical to that of people who did not have any breathing problems at all," Osorio said. "Given that so many older adults have sleep breathing problems, these results are exciting--we need to examine whether using CPAP could possibly help prevent or delay memory and thinking problems."
Osorio noted that more research is needed. "These findings were made in an observational study and as such, do not indicate a cause-and-effect relationship," said Osorio. "However, we are now focusing our research on CPAP treatment and memory and thinking decline over decades, as well as looking specifically at markers of brain cell death and deterioration."
###
The study was supported by Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, the National Institute of Health's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the Foundation for Research in Sleep Disorders and James B. Kuhn.
To learn more about brain health, please visit http://www. aan. com/ patients .
The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 28,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.
For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit http://www. aan. com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.
Media Contacts:
Rachel Seroka, [email protected], (612) 928-6129
Michelle Uher, [email protected], (612) 928-6120 ||||| Abstract
Objective: To examine whether the presence of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with an earlier age at mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer disease (AD)-dementia onset in participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) cohort. We also examined whether continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) use is associated with delayed onset of cognitive decline.
Methods: From the ADNI cohort, 3 subsets with progressively stringent criteria were created in a step-wise manner. Age at MCI or AD-dementia onset was the main outcome variable. Analyses were performed separately for each subset in untreated SDB+ vs SDB− and untreated SDB+ vs CPAP+ groups. Chi-square and t tests were performed to examine between-group differences. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan–Meier method, compared by the log-rank test, and assessed by multivariate Cox regression adjusting for potential confounders.
Results: SDB+ patients had a younger age at MCI onset in all subsets (MC1: 72.63 vs 83.67; MC2: 72.15 vs 83.45; MC3: 77.40 vs 89.89; p < 0.01). SDB+ patients had a younger age at AD-dementia onset only in our most conservative subset (AC3: 83.46 vs 88.13; p < 0.05). In a combined outcome analysis, SDB+ patients had a younger age at onset to MCI or AD-dementia in all subsets. In subsets 1 and 2, CPAP use delayed the age at MCI onset (CMC1: 72.63 vs 82.10; CMC2: 72.11 vs 82.10; p < 0.01). | – If you're prone to heavy snoring or sleep apnea, you could also be prone to something a lot more serious: memory and mild cognitive decline, including Alzheimer's, at a much earlier age. So say researchers out of New York University in the journal Neurology. They studied 2,470 people with an average age of 73 and found that those with breathing disorders during sleep experienced some form of cognitive decline more than a decade before those without the breathing problems (at age 77 instead of age 90). "We need to increase the awareness that sleep disorders can increase the risk for cognitive impairment and possibly for Alzheimer's," the lead author tells the New York Times. But all is not lost: Those who treated their breathing disorders with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, however, were able to delay mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's by roughly 10 years, the researchers report in a press release. "The age of onset of (mild cognitive impairment) for people whose breathing problems were treated was almost identical to that of people who did not have any breathing problems at all," says the author. "Given that so many older adults have sleep breathing problems, these results are exciting." (Snoring and sleep apnea are linked to these health problems, too.) |
Mother-of-two recovering from breast cancer dies in fall from horse as she attempted bucket list task of galloping along a beach
Geraldine Jones, 51, had just been given the all-clear from breast cancer
After diagnose in 2010, she promised herself she would gallop on a beach
Mother-of-two died from her injuries after she was thrown off the horse
By Lucy Osborne
Tragedy: Geraldine Jones, 51, had just beaten breast cancer when she died after falling off a horse at a beach in South Wales
It was her dream to ride a galloping horse along a beach with the wind in her hair.
Breast cancer sufferer Geraldine Jones promised herself she would achieve her goal if she survived the disease – and finally got her chance when she was given the all-clear after four years.
But the 51-year-old’s longed-for moment turned into bitter tragedy when she was thrown off her horse and died.
Her friend – an experienced rider – and a passing jogger administered first aid and a coastguard rescue team was sent to the scene.
But despite their efforts, Mrs Jones was pronounced dead in an air ambulance.
While undergoing treatment for cancer, the mother-of-two is thought to have written a list of things she wanted to do when she beat the illness – a twist on the ‘bucket lists’ prepared by those with a terminal condition.
After learning that she was free of cancer, Mrs Jones started her bid to tick off all the items on her list.
She began by going on holiday to Gower in south Wales last Sunday to visit a friend and ride horses together along the picturesque Llangennith Beach.
Another friend said: ‘Riding on the sand was something Geraldine was really looking forward to. We’ve been told there was a huge smile on her face as she walked down to the beach.’
Mrs Jones’s husband Tim, 53 – with whom she had two sons, Olly, 16, and 12-year-old Henry – was too distraught to speak yesterday at home in Fownhope, Herefordshire.
A neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘He has been inconsolable ever since. She had faced this cancer battle and they had overcome it together … And then this goes and happens. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything more tragic in my life.
‘She has always wanted to ride a horse on the beach … It was part of her bucket list … Our hearts just go out to her husband and two young boys.’
Accident: Mrs Jones was fulfilling her dream of riding down a beach on horseback when she was thrown off, suffering fatal injuries
Scene: The incident took place at Llangennith Beach on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, last Sunday
Fighter: Mrs Jones, is survived by her husband, Tim, and her two sons Oliver and Henry
The neighbour added: ‘Her experience of cancer, the uncertainty at the time and the news that treatment had been successful, created a heightened appreciation of the smallest things and a greater determination in her that she would live life to the full, be a successful businesswoman and spend quality time with her family.’
Mrs Jones, who had been the head of marketing and communications at St Michael’s Hospice near Hereford, was first diagnosed with cancer in 2010.
She ended her seven years at the hospice to become a freelance communications consultant 12 months ago.
Hospice staff were said to be in tears after the news of her sudden death was announced. Chief executive Nicky West said: ‘Geraldine was a much-loved member of staff at St Michael’s Hospice and her former colleagues have been devastated by the news.
‘Geraldine’s vibrant personality and zest for life made an enormous contribution to St Michael’s. Her exceptional writing skills and empathy for patients and families helped create thought-provoking articles about our work here.
‘Geraldine’s love of life brought joy to the people she spent time with. Her sudden death is a shock, leaving friends and former colleagues saddened and in tears.’
Mrs Jones, who was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, was an experienced rider but had never galloped on sand before.
Swansea coroner’s office said it would not make a decision on whether to open an inquest until the results of a post-mortem examination were known.
Steve Jones, Swansea coastguard’s manager, added: ‘[The riders] were not doing anything wrong. They were just enjoying the day, as everyone was.’ | – After four years of chemo in facing down—and recently beating—breast cancer, 51-year-old Geraldine Jones set out to fulfill a "lifelong dream" of riding a horse on her favorite stretch of beach in South Wales as a way to "appreciate every moment," a close friend tells the Telegraph. But that dream was cut short when she fell from her horse and, in spite of her helmet, sustained a fatal head injury. Though her experienced rider friend and a passing jogger both administered first aid, she was pronounced dead on the coast guard flight to a nearby hospital. "He has been inconsolable ever since," a neighbor says of Jones' husband in an interview with the Daily Mail. "She had faced this cancer battle and they had overcome it together … And then this goes and happens. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything more tragic in my life." Jones, who had been communications director at a hospital in Wales until she turned to freelance PR consulting a year ago to spend more time with her family, is also survived by her two teenage sons. "They were not doing anything wrong," a member of the coast guard said of the riders. "They were just enjoying the day, as everyone was." (See what another cancer survivor elected to do with his time.) |
Bill Cosby arrives for his sentencing hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) (Associated Press)
Bill Cosby arrives for his sentencing hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) (Associated Press)
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — His Hollywood career and good-guy image in ruins, an 81-year-old Bill Cosby was sentenced Tuesday to three to 10 years behind bars for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, becoming the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison.
The punishment all but completed the dizzying, late-in-life fall from grace for the comedian, former TV star and breaker of racial barriers.
"It is time for justice. Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come," Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill said. He quoted from victim Andrea Constand's own statement to the court, in which she said Cosby took her "beautiful, young spirit and crushed it."
Cosby declined the opportunity to speak before the sentence came down, and afterward he sat and chatted with his spokesman and a lawyer, seemingly in good spirits. His wife of 54 years, Camille, was not in court. Constand smiled upon hearing the punishment and was hugged by others in the courtroom.
Cosby's lawyers asked that he be allowed to remain free on bail, but the judge appeared incredulous over the request and said he would not treat the celebrity any differently from others.
The punishment came at the end of a two-day hearing at which the judge declared Cosby a "sexually violent predator" — a modern-day scarlet letter that subjects him to monthly counseling for the rest of his life and requires that neighbors and schools be notified of his whereabouts.
The comic once known as America's Dad for his role on the top-rated "Cosby Show" in the 1980s was convicted in April of violating Constand, Temple University women's basketball administrator, at his suburban Philadelphia estate in 2004. It was the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Cosby faced a sentence of anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison. His lawyers asked for house arrest, saying Cosby — who is legally blind — is too old and vulnerable to do time in prison. Prosecutors asked for five to 10 years behind bars, saying he could still pose a threat to women.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele rejected the notion that Cosby's age and infirmity entitle him to mercy. "He was good at hiding this for a long time. Good at suppressing this for a long time. So it's taken a long time to get there," Steele said.
The sentencing came as another extraordinary #MeToo drama unfolded on Capitol Hill, where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh stands accused of sexual misconduct more than three decades ago.
The Cosby case "really raised awareness of the pervasiveness of ... sexual misconduct against subordinates and against women of relatively less power," said Daniel Filler, dean of Drexel University's law school. "For jurors, I think it's inherently changed the credibility of the accusers."
In the years since Constand first went to authorities in 2005, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, though none of those claims have led to criminal charges.
The judge ruled on Cosby's "sexually violent predator" status after a psychologist for the state testified that the entertainer appears to have a mental disorder that gives him an uncontrollable urge to have sex with women without their consent. When the ruling came down, a woman in the courtroom shot her fist into the air and whispered, "Yessss!"
In a statement submitted to the court and released Tuesday, Constand, now 45, that she has had to cope with years of anxiety and self-doubt. She said she now lives alone with her two dogs and has trouble trusting people.
"When the sexual assault happened, I was a young woman brimming with confidence and looking forward to a future bright with possibilities," she wrote in her five-page statement. "Now, almost 15 years later, I'm a middle-aged woman who's been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward."
She also wrote of Cosby: "We may never know the full extent of his double life as a sexual predator, but his decades-long reign of terror as a serial rapist is over."
The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, which Constand and other accusers have done.
Constand went to police a year after waking up in a fog at Cosby's gated estate, her clothes askew, only to have the district attorney pass on the case.
Another district attorney reopened the file a decade later and charged the TV star after stand-up comic Hannibal Buress' riff about Cosby being a rapist prompted more accusers to come forward and after a federal judge, acting on a request from The Associated Press, unsealed some of Cosby's startling, decade-old testimony in Constand's related civil suit.
In his testimony, Cosby described sexual encounters with a string of actresses, models and other young women and talked about obtaining quaaludes to give to those he wanted to sleep with.
Cosby's first trial in 2017 ended with a hung jury. He was convicted at a retrial that opened months after the #MeToo movement had taken down such figures as Hollywood studio boss Harvey Weinstein, NBC's Matt Lauer, actor Kevin Spacey and Sen. Al Franken.
Constand said Cosby gave her what she thought were herbal pills to ease stress, then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay immobilized on a couch. Cosby claimed the encounter was consensual, and his lawyers branded her a "con artist" who framed the comedian to get a big payday — a $3.4 million settlement she received over a decade ago.
Five other accusers took the stand at the trial as part of an effort by prosecutors to portray him as a predator.
Cosby, whose estimated fortune once topped $400 million, broke barriers in the 1960s as the first black actor to star in a network show, "I Spy." He went on to superstardom as wise and understanding Dr. Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," a sitcom that showed America a new kind of black TV family: a warm and loving household led by two professionals, one a lawyer, the other a doctor.
He also found success with his Saturday morning cartoon "Fat Albert," appeared in commercials for Jello-O pudding and became a public moralist, lecturing the black community about young people stealing things and wearing baggy pants. He won a Presidential Medal of Freedom and countless Emmys, Golden Globes and Grammy awards.
As the allegations mounted, his career all but collapsed, "Cosby Show" reruns were taken off the air, and one college after another stripped him of his honorary degrees.
___
Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer contributed to this report. ||||| Bill Cosby arrives for his sentencing hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) (Associated Press)
Bill Cosby arrives for his sentencing hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) (Associated Press)
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A judge declared Bill Cosby a "sexually violent predator" on Tuesday as a first step toward sentencing the 81-year-old comedian for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman over a decade ago.
The classification means that Cosby must undergo monthly counseling for the rest of his life and report quarterly to authorities. His name will appear on a sex-offender registry sent to neighbors, schools and victims.
Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill made the decision as he prepared to sentence Cosby for violating Temple University women's basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia estate in 2004.
The comic once known as America's Dad faced anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison after being convicted in April in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Prosecutors asked for five to 10 years in prison. The defense requested house arrest, saying Cosby is too old and helpless to do time behind bars. He is legally blind.
Cosby's lawyers had fought the "sexually violent predator" designation, arguing that Pennsylvania's sex-offender law remains unconstitutional and that he is no threat to the public at his age.
But O'Neill said prosecutors had met their burden of proof by "clear and convincing" evidence.
When the ruling came down, a woman in courtroom shot her fist into the air and whispered, "Yessss!"
Meanwhile, Constand said in a statement submitted to the ocurt and released Tuesday that she has had to cope with years of anxiety and self-doubt that have left her "stuck in a holding pattern."
Constand, 45, said her training as a professional basketball player had led her to think she could handle anything, but "life as I knew it" ended on the night that Cosby knocked her out with pills and violated her.
Constand said she now lives alone with her two dogs and has trouble trusting people.
"When the sexual assault happened, I was a young woman brimming with confidence and looking forward to a future bright with possibilities," she wrote in her five-page statement.
"Now, almost 15 years later, I'm a middle-aged woman who's been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward."
In the years since Constand first went to authorities in 2005, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, though none of those claims have led to criminal charges.
The judge ruled on Cosby's sex-offender status after a defense psychologist, Timothy Foley, testified that the chances of the comedian committing another sex offense are "extraordinarily low" because he is old, legally blind and needs help getting around.
On Monday, a psychologist for the state testified that Cosby appears to have a mental disorder that gives him an uncontrollable urge to assault women.
Cosby was smiling and joking with his spokesman and sheriff's deputies as he settled into the courtroom Tuesday. On Day 1 of the sentencing, the comic laughed at times as the psychologist on the stand for the state portrayed him as a sexual predator with signs of a mental disorder.
Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom; they are generally banned in Pennsylvania.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said the former TV star planned to remain silent when given the opportunity to address the court. Cosby did not testify at either of his two trials.
The proceedings took place as another extraordinary #MeToo drama continued to unfold on Capitol Hill, where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces allegations of sexual misconduct from more than three decades ago.
Tuesday's sentencing was a reckoning accusers and prosecutors said was decades in the making for the once-beloved entertainer known for his role as wise and understanding Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the top-ranked, 1980s-era "Cosby Show."
The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, which Constand and other accusers have done.
Cosby became the first black actor to star in a prime-time TV show, "I Spy," in 1965. He remained a Hollywood A-lister for much of the next half-century.
___
Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer contributed to this report. ||||| This Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, photo provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections shows Bill Cosby, after he was sentenced to three-to 10-years for sexual assault. (Pennsylvania Department of... (Associated Press)
This Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, photo provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections shows Bill Cosby, after he was sentenced to three-to 10-years for sexual assault. (Pennsylvania Department of Corrections via AP) (Associated Press)
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing of Bill Cosby (all times local):
10:05 a.m.
Pennsylvania corrections officials say Bill Cosby will serve his sentence at a new state prison in the Philadelphia suburbs.
The Department of Corrections provided details of Cosby's incarceration Wednesday, one day after the 81-year-old comedian was sentenced to three to 10 years for sexual assault.
Cosby will serve his time at SCI Phoenix, about 20 miles from his gated estate. The $400 million prison opened two months ago.
He's being housed in a single cell near the infirmary. Corrections Secretary John Wetzel says the prison's long-term goal is to place Cosby in the general population. Under prison policy, he'll be allowed phone calls and visits and will get a chance to exercise.
Wetzel says the prison is "taking all of the necessary precautions" to ensure the celebrity's safety.
The prison system assigned Cosby inmate number NN7687.
___
7:50 a.m.
A prosecutor who tried Bill Cosby in his sexual assault case says the comedian's chief accuser, Andrea Constand, told her she was happy with his three-to-10-year prison sentence.
Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" that accuser Andrea Constand gave her strength as she went through the difficult process of prosecuting Cosby.
Feden says "her courage and strength was enough for me to say, 'Let's keep going."
Feden also says that as she watched Cosby during the proceedings, "I don't even know that it was clear to him that this was judgment day."
Cosby's wife, Camille, has claimed that a phone recording played at trial was doctored. On ABC's "Good Morning America," Feden's fellow prosecutor Stewart Ryan called it a "last-ditch effort to cook up an appeal issue."
___
2:40 a.m.
A publicist for once-beloved actor Bill Cosby complained that the star's conviction and three- to 10-year prison term for sexual assault stem from a racist and sexist justice system.
Cosby is vowing to appeal his conviction as the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. He is serving time at a state prison in Montgomery County after his sentencing there Tuesday.
Judge Steven O'Neill has presided over the case for nearly three years. He says Cosby remains a potential danger to society even though he is 81 and infirm. The judge says Cosby could still drug people to override their lack of consent to sexual activity.
Defense lawyers had argued that Cosby be sentenced to home confinement over the 2004 assault. ||||| NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby was sentenced on Tuesday afternoon to three to 10 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a woman at his Philadelphia home back in 2004 — the final step in his downward spiral from America’s Dad to convicted felon.
Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill denied Cosby’s request for bail pending his appeal. Cosby took off his suit jacket, watch, and tie in the courtroom as two deputy sheriffs handcuffed him and transported him to county jail.
He will then will be transferred to a state facility, where he will be evaluated, and sent to a state prison — probably one in a rural part of Pennsylvania for old and infirm inmates.
Cosby showed no visible reaction to the sentence, which was close to the maximum that could be imposed. He remained seated in the courtroom, chatting quietly with his lawyers and two friends during a recess.
Under Pennsylvania law, Cosby will have to serve the full minimum of three years before he can be eligible for parole. The maximum possible sentence was five to 10 years behind bars.
“This is a serious crime,” said O’Neill, who rejected the defense request for house arrest, partial confinement, and even a chance to serve the sentence in the county jail as opposed to state prison.
O’Neill said he gave substantial weight to the impact of the sexual assault on victim Andrea Constand, who was seated in the courtroom when the sentence was announced. “I put a high degree of weight on the impact of the crime on the victim and her family,” said O’Neill.
Related Gretchen Carlson on How Her Roger Ailes Lawsuit Affected the Cosby Case Why Janice Dickinson Laughed at Bill Cosby When He Was Sentenced (Guest Column)
Cosby’s publicist, Andrew Wyatt, denounced the outcome in a statement outside court.
“This has been the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States,” he said, laying the blame at the feet of “white women who make money off of accusing black men of being sexual predators.”
“They persecuted Jesus and look what happened,” Wyatt added. “Mr. Cosby is fine. He’s holding up well. Anyone who wants to say anything negative, you’re a joke as well.”
Cosby’s wife Camille, through a spokeswoman, issued a statement blasting the prosecutors for using “falsified evidence.”
At a news conference, District Attorney Kevin Steele said Cosby is no Cliff Huxtable (his “Cosby Show” character), but rather someone who used his acting skills to prey on women. Justice, he said, has finally been served with the prison term. “It’s been a long time coming,” said Steele.
Steele credited Constand for reporting the attack to police and testifying.
“This assault changed her life,” said Steele as Constand stood nearby. “She’s been a rock. She’s done the right thing.”
Steele said it was no “cause for celebration” for Cosby to be led off in handcuffs. “We take very seriously the taking of somebody’s liberty,” but, he went on, “Our job is to separate the predators from the good people of our community, and that happened today.”
Among the women who accused Cosby of assault, the sentence was accepted with a mix of emotions, though mostly relief. There was a former supermodel, an ex-Playboy bunny, and the former wife of Alan Ladd. Several of the women who testified at trial, to show a pattern of similar conduct by Cosby, were also there.
“We’re just thrilled to death,” said Victoria Valentino, a former Playboy bunny who attended both trials. “It’s just a matter of having that final curtain call so we can have some real serious feelings of closure.”
Former entertainment executive Cindra Ladd, now 70, said she has been dealing with the emotions of having been sexually assaulted since approximately 1969. She added that she was grateful to O’Neill for “making sure justice was served.”
“I really wanted to be here, especially with some of my other survivor sisters,” Ladd, who used to be married to producer Alan Ladd, said. “It was important for me to see him.”
Earlier in the day, O’Neill declared the former TV star a “sexually violent predator.” The designation means that Cosby, who is legally blind, will be subject to a lifetime of reporting requirements, meaning he will have to advise law enforcement authorities of where he is residing.
Steele asked O’Neill to impose the maximum sentence of five to 10 years in state prison, and to reject defense arguments that Cosby should be allowed to serve any sentence under house arrest.
“This should be a state prison sentence,” said Steele.
Green rejected the prosecution’s contention that Cosby should be considered dangerous, saying he couldn’t recall any instance in which an 81-year-old, blind defendant had been sent to state prison.
Cosby was found guilty in April of molesting Constand, who had been operations manager of the women’s basketball team at Temple University, where Cosby had been a major supporter and donor.
It was the first sentencing of a celebrity in the passionate atmosphere of the #MeToo movement, and the case provided a backdrop not just for Constand’s allegation, but for some of the dozens of other women who accused Cosby of assaulting them, and faithfully attended the court proceedings.
But only Constand’s allegation was the focus of a criminal trial, and she was in court for the sentencing, telling O’Neill she was asking only for “justice as the court sees fit.”
Constand, who is now a massage therapist in Canada, testified during the trial in April and in an earlier trial last year that ended with a hung jury, that she had become friends with Cosby, and viewed him as a mentor.
She testified that she took three blue pills Cosby offered her during a visit to his home outside Philadelphia in early 2004 because she trusted Cosby and believed they were some kind of an herbal relaxant. But then, she testified, she soon became incapacitated and felt his fingers inside of her, but “couldn’t fight him off.” ||||| Bill Cosby arrives for his sentencing hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) (Associated Press)
Bill Cosby arrives for his sentencing hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) (Associated Press)
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Facing the possibility of prison at 81, Bill Cosby arrived at a suburban Philadelphia courthouse Tuesday to learn his punishment for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman over a decade ago in what led to the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Prosecutors on Monday asked a judge to give the comedian five to 10 years behind bars, while his lawyers asked for house arrest, saying the legally blind Cosby is too old and helpless to do time in prison.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said the former TV star planned to remain silent when given the opportunity to address the court. Cosby did not testify at either of his two trials.
The once-beloved entertainer dubbed America's Dad for his role as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the top-ranked, 1980s-era "Cosby Show" faced anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison for violating Temple University women's basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his estate near Philadelphia in 2004.
In the years since Constand first went to authorities in 2005, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, though none of those claims have led to criminal charges.
Tuesday's sentencing was a reckoning accusers and prosecutors said was decades in the making.
"The victims cannot be un-raped. Unfortunately, all we can do is hold the perpetrator accountable," said Gianna Constand, the victim's mother, who testified Monday that her daughter's buoyant personality was forever changed after the attack.
The hearing was set to conclude Tuesday after testimony from a defense psychologist who says Cosby is no longer a danger, given his age, and should not be branded a "sexually violent predator."
Defense lawyer Joseph Green Jr. urged the judge ignore the protests and activism surrounding the case and send Cosby home.
"The suggestion that Mr. Cosby is dangerous is not supported by anything other than the frenzy," Green said as demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse.
Being labeled a sexually violent predator would make Cosby subject to mandatory lifetime counseling and community notification of his whereabouts.
On Monday, Kristen Dudley, a psychologist for the state of Pennsylvania, testified that Cosby fits the criteria for a sexually violent predator, showing signs of a mental disorder that involves an uncontrollable urge to have nonconsensual sex with young women.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said Cosby would no doubt commit similar crimes if given the chance, warning that the former TV star seemingly gets a sexual thrill out of slipping women drugs and assaulting them.
"To say that he's too old to do that — to say that he should get a pass, because it's taken this long to catch up to what he's done?" Steele said, his voice rising. "What they're asking for is a 'get out of jail free' card."
Cosby, he said, has shown repeatedly that he feels no remorse over his actions. And he said the sentence should send a message.
"Despite bullying tactics, despite PR teams and other folks trying to change the optics, as one lawyer for the defense put it, the bottom line is that nobody's above the law. Nobody," the district attorney said.
After testifying for several hours at two trials, the first of which ended in a hung jury, Constand spoke in court Monday for just two minutes.
"The jury heard me. Mr. Cosby heard me. Now all I am asking for is justice as the court sees fit," said Andrea Constand, who submitted a much longer victim-impact statement that wasn't read in court.
The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, which Constand and other accusers have done.
Cosby's side didn't call any character witnesses, and his wife of 54 years, Camille, was not in court Monday.
Cosby became the first black actor to star in a prime-time TV show, "I Spy," in 1965. He remained a Hollywood A-lister for much of the next half-century.
The proceedings took place as another extraordinary #MeToo drama continued to unfold on Capitol Hill, where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces allegations of sexual misconduct from more than three decades ago.
___
Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer contributed to this report. | – "Mr. Cosby, this all circles back to you. The day has come. The time has come." So said Judge Steven O’Neill in sentencing Bill Cosby to three to 10 years in state prison on Tuesday in connection with the 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand, reports the Los Angeles Times. It notes the 81-year-old opted not to address the courtroom in Norristown, Pa.; Variety adds Cosby "showed no visible reaction" to the sentence. The AP reports that "afterward he sat and chatted with his spokesman and a lawyer, seemingly in good spirits." His wife, Camille, was not present for the sentencing. The latest on the downfall of America's Dad: How the AP describes that downfall: "His Hollywood career and good-guy image in ruins, an 81-year-old Bill Cosby ... [became] the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison." O'Neill "appeared incredulous" as he turned down Cosby's lawyers' request that the comedian remain free on bail pending appeal, per the AP. The New York Times reports the lawyers pushed the point further, and O'Neill withdrew to his chambers to consider the request. But he ultimately rejected the request, and Cosby was led away to prison in handcuffs, per the AP. He must serve a minimum of three years before being eligible for parole. He was processed at Montgomery Correctional Facility in Eagleville, Penn., before being moved to State Correctional Institution at Phoenix; at the state prison, his health and other needs will be evaluated for a period of weeks to months as officials determine which prison he will ultimately be sent to. Cosby, who was also fined $25,000 plus the costs of prosecution, now has a mug shot, which was released Tuesday afternoon. |
UPDATE: New Scientology internal documents about the investigation of Parker and Stone leaked. See our new story here. Also, Scientology responds to this story, and we decode their response for you.
NEW: filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman confirms that he was asked about Trey Parker and Matt Stone by Scientology's Eric Sherman in 2006. And Mark Ebner adds more confirmation that OSA followed people who worked on the 2005 South Park episode. Also, a private investigator describes sifting trash for the Church of Scientology.
Another interesting revelation at Marty Rathbun's blog this morning: Rathbun released what he said was an internal Scientology document which suggests that the church targeted Trey Parker and Matt Stone for a classic OSA investigation in retaliation for the infamous South Park episode that exposed the religion's bizarre upper-level teachings.
Rathbun tells me this initial document is just the beginning of a trove that describes how Scientology investigated Parker and Stone over a significant period after the duo deeply embarrassed the church with its 2005 episode, "Trapped in the Closet."
Marty Rathbun himself was once a powerful executive in Scientology who defected in 2004, and since 2009 has been criticizing church leader David Miscavige at his blog. At various times this year, Rathbun has made public similar documents which reveal the covert operations of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs.
The document he revealed today suggests that Scientology had identified Parker and Stone's close friends, and was examining public records on those people, looking for a vulnerability.
"To find a direct line into Stone and Parker some of their friends have been identified," reads the document, which reads like a typical OSA report on an ongoing investigation. The church's information allegedly was coming from Eric Sherman, a film consultant who Rathbun identifies as a Scientologist (the Voice is attempting to reach him), and who had talked with Troma Studio's Lloyd Kaufman for information about Parker and Stone.
Several friends to the South Park duo are then identified: writer Matthew Prager (That's My Bush), actor John Stamos, actress Rebecca Romijn, and writer David Goodman.
"These connections are being PRC'd," reads the document, and Rathbun explains that the acronym stands for "public records check." Scientology's standard procedure would be to put its private eyes on a complete check of these people and their property, legal, and other public records. If they owed taxes, or had been in messy divorces, or had been arrested, Scientology would soon know about it.
"There are some strings that will be pulled on the PRC on Stone," the document reads, suggesting that investigators had already found something about Matt Stone in public records that would make him vulnerable.
"Otherwise the special collections will be debugged in order to get some viable strings that can be pulled," the document then reads, and Rathbun explains that "special collections" is Scientology's code for trash digging.
I asked Rathbun what kind of things OSA's operatives would be looking for in the trash of Parker and Stone and their friends.
"Phone records. Bank records. Personal letters that expose some kind of vulnerability. They'll read stuff into the kind of alcohol you're drinking and how much. Prescriptions. They'll figure out your diet. They can find out a lot about you through your trash," he told me this morning by phone from his home in South Texas.
"You can see that the commanding officer is pissed off and not enough is getting done," he says about the final lines from the OSA document. But additional documents show that the investigation did get going in a big way, and we'll have more about that soon.
The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology
#1: L. Ron Hubbard
#2: David Miscavige
#3: Marty Rathbun
#4: Tom Cruise
#5: Joe Childs and Tom Tobin
#6: Anonymous
#7: Mark Bunker
#8: Mike Rinder
#9: Jason Beghe
#10: Lisa McPherson
#11: Nick Xenophon (and other public servants)
#12: Tommy Davis (and other hapless church executives)
#13: Janet Reitman (and other journalists)
#14: Tory Christman (and other noisy ex-Scientologists)
#15: Andreas Heldal-Lund (and other old time church critics)
#16: Marc and Claire Headley, escapees of the church's HQ
#17: Jefferson Hawkins, the man behind the TV volcano
#18: Amy Scobee, former Sea Org executive
#19: The Squirrel Busters (and the church's other thugs and goons)
#20: Trey Parker and Matt Stone (and other media figures)
#21: Kendrick Moxon, attorney for the church
#22: Jamie DeWolf (and other L. Ron Hubbard family members)
#23: Ken Dandar (and other attorneys who litigate against the church)
#24: David Touretzky (and other academics)
#25: Xenu, galactic overlord
Tony Ortega is the editor-in-chief of The Village Voice. Since 1995, he's been writing about Scientology at several publications.
[email protected] | @VoiceTonyO | Facebook: Tony Ortega
Keep up on all of our New York news coverage at this blog, Runnin' Scared
SCIENTOLOGY IN THE VILLAGE VOICE
[All recent stories] | [Top 25 People Crippling Scientology] | [Commenters of the Week] [Thursday 2pm Stats!]
FEATURED INVESTIGATIONS
[Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis secretly recorded discussing "disconnection"]
[Benjamin Ring, LA deputy sheriff, wants you to spend your 401K on Scientology]
[Scientologists: How many of them are there, anyway?]
[Scientology hates clean ice: The "Fair Game" operation that should turn your stomach]
[Scientology hates clean ice, part 2: Another target, and the web as weapon]
MARTY RATHBUN AND THE SIEGE OF SOUTH TEXAS
[Scientology has Rathbun arrested] | [Rathbun and Mark Bunker reveal surprising ties]
In Germany with Ursula Caberta: [Announcing plans] | [Press conference] | [Making news about Tom Cruise, Bill Clinton, and Tony Blair] | [Post-trip interview]
The Squirrel Busters: [Goons with cameras on their heads] | [Rathbun's open letter to neighbors] | [Ingleside on the Bay, Texas rallies to Rathbun's cause] | [Squirrel Buster's claim to be making a "documentary"] | [VIDEO: "On a Boat"] | ["Anna" sent to creep out Monique Rathbun] | [Squirrel Busters go hillbilly] | [A videographer blows the whistle on the goon squad] | [Ed Bryan, OT VIII, shows the power of Scientology's highest levels]
SCIENTOLOGY SPYING AND "FAIR GAME"
[Secret Scientology documents spell out spying operation against Marc Headley]
[Scientology's West U.S. spies list revealed] | [Scientology's enemies list: Are you on it?]
Spy operation against Washington Post writer Richard Leiby: [Part 1] | [Part 2]
[A Scientology spy comes clean: Paulien Lombard's remarkable public confession]
[Scientology advertises for writers in Freedom magazine]
[Accidental leak shows Scientology spy wing plans to "handle" the Voice]
[Lori Hodgson and Disconnection: "No one's going to take my eternity away"]
SCIENTOLOGY AND CELEBRITIES
["Tom Cruise told me to talk to a bottle"] | [Tom Cruise likes coconut cake] | [Tom Cruise has a sense of humor] | ["Tom Cruise not a kook!"] | [Paulette Cooper on Tom Cruise]
[Paul Haggis, director of Crash, issues an ultimatum, leaves the church]
[Character actor Jason Beghe defects noisily] | [Actor Michael Fairman reveals his "suppressive person" declaration] | [Michael Fairman talks to the Voice]
[Giovanni Ribisi as David Koresh: Scientology-Branch Davidian link makes sense]
[Russell Brand weds ex-Scientologists in wild ceremony] | [Skip Press on Haggis]
[Placido Domingo Jr.: Scientology's retaliation is "scary and pathetic"]
Grant Cardone, NatGeo's "Turnaround King": [Doing Scientology's dirty work?] | [Milton Katselas complained about Cardone's smear job] | [Cardone runs to Huffpo]
[Philip Boyd, Saving Grace actor, rips "the business that is Scientology"]
JANET REITMAN'S INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY
[Our review of Inside Scientology] | [An interview with Janet Reitman] | [A report from Reitman's first book tour appearance] | [At the Half-King: Reitman not afraid]
[Scientology doesn't like Inside Scientology] | [Q&A; at Washington Post]
[A roundup of Reitman's print reviews, and why isn't she on television more?]
HUGH URBAN'S THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY
[A review of Urban's scholarly history of the church] | [An interview with Hugh Urban]
EX-SCIENTOLOGISTS SPEAK OUT
[Marc Headley: "Tom Cruise told me to talk to a bottle"] | [The Nancy Many interview]
[Sympathy for the Devil: Tory Christman's Story] | [Jeff Hawkins' Counterfeit Dreams]
[86 Million Thin Dimes: The Lawrence Wollersheim Saga] | [Mike Rinder on spying]
OVERSEAS NEWS
[Scientology dodges a bullet in Australia] | [Scientology exec Jan Eastgate arrested]
[All hell breaks loose in Israel] | [Scientology sees fundraising gold in the UK riots]
[Aussie former rugby pro Chris Guider calls David Miscavige "toxic" and "violent"]
[Stephen Cox, UK church newbie, pledges 20K pounds] | [Biggi Reichert: A German Lisa McPherson?] | [The Birmingham trove: 7,000 internal e-mails]
ODD VIDEOS AND ODDER NEWS
[Scientology singalong, "We Stand Tall"] | [Captain Bill Robertson and "Galactic Patrol"]
[Scientology wins a major award!] | [Scientology wants your money: Meet Dede!]
[Birmingham in the House! The "Ideal" dance mix] | [Scientology and the Nation of Islam]
[When Scientology was hip] | [Sad: David Miscavige makes fun of his own fundraisers]
[Freedom magazine parodies The New Yorker. Hilarity ensues.]
[Scientology surf report: Anonymous parties outside the New York "org"]
THE VIEW INSIDE THE BUBBLE
[A scientologist's letter to the Voice and its readers] | [Scientology silent birth]
[Tad Reeves: Scientology might listen to this guy] | [More Tad Reeves and family]
[Scientology never forgets: A heartwarming telemarketing holiday miracle]
[Scientology High School, Dating and Super Powers!]
Sponsor Content ||||| Uploaded by SoUpstat on
To people confused about voting - thumbs-up if you think the execs at 2:45 look like bell-ends. (The guy in the hermes/goatse shirt is Tom Cruise's best friend - he's meant to be a real macho guy, he's super-upset at this footage being leaked)
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BEHOLD, a hilarious pile of fluff that was dug up and leaked to the internets. *Make sure you watch it quick, before David Miscavige's minions have it yanked down*.
Speaking of Dave, he can be seen right at the front of this "We are the World"-type singalong that was put together in 1990. We can't see how many phone books he's standing on, but all around him are some famous names from Scientology's past and present:
At the 2:40 mark, you'll see everyone together warbling their guts out. Our tipster provided the following playbook:
* londe with brown top and black jacket is Shelley Miscavige -- who is now missing.
*To her right -- Ray Mithoff, Former Inspector General for Tech RTC, reported to be in The Hole.
* To his right -- Mark Yager, Former Inspector General for Admin RTC, reported to be in The Hole.
* To his right -- Mark Ingber -- Former Commanding Officer of CMO = Commodore Messengers Org, reported to be in the Hole.
* To Ingber's right and behind him, Mike Rinder Former Commanding Officer of OSA, currently blown and speaking out against the cult.
* Front and Center -- David Miscavige [the little dude] wearing weird Hermes/goatse shirt.
* To DM's right and behind him -- Heber Jentzsch, Former President of the C of S, now reportedly in the The Hole.
* To DM's right -- Greg Wilhere -- Inspector General, reportedly still working for DM.
* To Greg Wilhere's right-- Marty Rathbun, Former Inspector General for Ethics RTC, now out and speaking out against the cult as well as running the "Independent" Scientologists.
* To Marty's right -- Guillaume Lesevre Executive Director Int. reportedly in the The Hole.
So many friends of Miscavige, now either defected and speaking out against him or disappeared to Scientology's "RPF," the prison "hole" that has swallowed up so many of his top loyal friends. Tsk Tsk.
Well, at least 21 years ago, the future seemed so bright
Thanks, Tony: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/06/scientology_vid.php
From our comments, this account of the video from former Miscavige assistant, Mark Fisher:
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I remember that it was done for one of the events and I think it was IAS anniversary event that was going to be in October. It may have been for an earlier event. It was done to show all the "Wins" and "successes for the year and the song was sung by a Scientologist singer named David Pomeranz. Charles Lake is the Gymnast and had just been on the Olympic team that summer that is why I think it was for the IAS event in October. I remember that the idea was to have all of International Management sing the chorus ala We are the World and DM thought the Scientology public would get a big kick out of it. All of the RTC Inspector Generals were in the front with DM and his wife Shelly and the Executive Director International Guillaume Leserve was there too. Then behind was the rest of RTC and the Watchdog Committee. I recognize many faces in the crowd. We recorded it in the Music Studio at the Gold Base and we are all looking at Peter Schless who is conducting the singing. Schless was a Gold Musician and his prior claim to fame was co writing the Jefferey Osbourne hit song "On the Wings of Love" from the 1980s. Me personally, I had just been put back working for David Miscavige again after a stint of manual labor for disagreeing with my wife being sent to the RPF. I however shortly after this video blew the base for good after 2 attempts. Almost 21 years ago.
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More details at http://www.scientology-london.com/secret/index_files/david-miscavige-singing.php - more info (this site is NOT controlled by $cientology)
Huff Po: http://huff.to/l2yMKt
Gawker: http://gawker.com/5813665/
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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this video is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. | – South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker may gleefully skewer anyone and everyone with scatological abandon, but apparently the Church of Scientology is one target unwilling to take its licks. The church investigated Stone and Parker in retaliation for their 2005 South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet," which ridiculed high-level church beliefs and prominent celebrity believers, such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, reports the Village Voice. "You can see that the commanding officer is pissed off, and not enough is getting done," said Marty Rathbun, a former Scientology executive who unearthed the internal document that describes the church's move. In what Scientology analysts call a "classic" investigation, the church reportedly identified Stone's and Parker's friends, performed public records checks, and went through their trash, all in an effort to dig up dirt on the pair. Why their trash? Rathbun explains, "Phone records. Bank records. Personal letters that expose some kind of vulnerability. They'll read stuff into the kind of alcohol you're drinking and how much. Prescriptions. They'll figure out your diet. They can find out a lot about you through your trash." Click to read the entire piece. |